Big data analytics, telemedicine, wearables rank high among $1.4B worth of health IT investments in 2016
The first quarter of 2016 saw $1.4 billion in venture capital funding and the most merger and acquisitions transactions in a single quarter to date, according to Mercom Capital Group.
The top health IT areas of investment were: wearables at $260 million, analytics at $197 million, telemedicine at $171 million, mHealth apps at $120 million and consumer health information/education with an even $100 million.
Those numbers include private equity and venture capital, according to Mercom, and the $1.4 billion total represents a 27 spike over the last quarter of 2015.
“Data analytics and telemedicine companies reached a significant milestone, each crossing $1 billion in funding raised to date,” Mercom CEO Raj Prabhu said in a statement. “Health IT public companies, meanwhile, continued to underperform.”
Patient-centric companies garnered 58 percent of the overall funding while those serving providers nabbed the remaining 42 percent.
Mercom listed the top VC deals as the $175 million Flatiron Health raised, $165 million Jawbone took home, Healthline’s win of $95 million, as well as the $70 million Health Catalyst raised, followed by inviCRO landing $46 million and higi getting $40 million.
Of the 58 M&A transactions that made this the single quarter with the most transactions to date, meanwhile, mHealth apps companies were involved with nine, followed by practice management and personal health vendors tied at 7, while there were five such deals for data analytics companies, four for EHR makers and three for telemedicine providers.
The top disclosed M&A transactions included Pamplona Capital Management scooping up MedAssets for $2.75 billion, IBM plunking down $2.6 billion on Truven Health Analytics and the $950 million Allscripts and Netsmart Technologies deal.
Twitter: @SullyHIT
Email the writer: tom.sullivan@himssmedia.com
