Venture Capital (VC) funding continues to gain momentum for healthcare IT as the Mercom Capital Group’s http://mercomcapital.com/market_intelligence.php, annual report http://store.mercom.mercomcapital.com/product/2014-q4-healthcare-it-funding-report shows another record breaking year as VC funding more than doubled in 2014 at $4.7 billion culminating in 670 deals.
According to Raj Prabhu, CEO and Co-Founder of Mercom, “The healthcare IT sector had another phenomenal fundraising year. In the five years since Mercom started tracking funding data, the healthcare IT sector has raised $8.8 billion in VC funding and another $3.6 billion in public market and debt financings bringing the total to $12.4 billion largely driven by the HITECH and Affordable Care Act.”
Mercom reports private-centric companies raised $2.4 billion in 234 deals in 2014, including Clinical Decision Support companies with $517 million, followed by Data Analytics companies with $367 million, and Population Health Management companies with $247 million
Consumer centric companies raised $2.3 billion in 436 deals with mhealth companies the largest recipient of VC funding bringing in $1.2 billion. Within mhealth, most funding went to wearables with $526 million and mhealth apps with $507 million. Telehealth companies received $369 million, and rating and comparison shopping companies brought in $288 million.
The two top VC funding rounds in 2014 were raised by NantHealth which brought in $320 million and $135 million in two separate deals. Flatiron Health raised $130 million followed by Alignment Healthcare raising $125 million.
Proteus Digital Health came in next with $120 million raised with another $52 million raised in another deal bringing their total to $172 million for 2014. China’s Guahao.com raised $100 million, Dedalus Group raised $89 million, and American Well brought in $81 million.