Venture capital funding in the global health IT and digital health sector hit $1.6 billion in the first quarter of 2017, according to a Mercom Capital Group report.
Mercom Capital Group, an Austin, Texas-based global communications and research firm, analyzed health IT and digital health deals in Q1 2017 for the report. In total, the group identified 165 VC funding deals spread across 19 countries during the quarter.
Here are four more things to know about health IT and digital health funding in Q1.
1. VC funding almost doubled quarter-over-quarter. There were 159 deals totaling $845 million in Q4 2016 and 146 deals totaling almost $1.4 billion in Q1 2016.
2. Mercom Capital Group said Q1 2017 was the "second highest quarter ever for the digital health sector." VC funding in the global sector has received more than $20 billion since 2010.
3. The three top funded areas were appointment booking ($315 million), mobile wireless ($230 million) and data analytics ($193 million).
4. The top three VC deals were raised by Hudong Feng Technology ($200 million), Alignment Healthcare ($115 million) and PatientsLikeMe ($100 million).
"Digital health funding is off to a fast start this year and there was no visible 'Trump effect' on investments in the sector, at least in the first quarter," said Raj Prabhu, CEO and co-founder of Mercom Capital Group. "Publicly-traded digital health companies actually fared much better in Q1 than last year."
Click here to view the report.