The first nine months of 2020 saw a record $10.3 billion of global venture capital funding for digital health companies, up 43 percent from the $7.2 billion raised over the same time period in 2019, according to a Mercom Capital Group report.
Four report findings:
1. Digital health companies raised $4 billion in venture capital funding in 195 deals during the third quarter of 2020 compared to $2.8 billion raised in 161 deals in the second quarter of this year.
2. The top-funded digital health company categories in the first nine months of 2020 were:
- Telemedicine: $3.2 billion
- Data analytics: $1.3 billion
- mHealth apps: $970 million
- Wearable sensors: $703 million
- Clinical decision support: $660 million
- Healthcare service booking: $572 million
- Practice management solutions: $553 million
- Wellness: $523 million
3. In total, 1,522 investors participated in the first nine months of 2020 compared to 1,171 investors over the same time period in 2019.
4. The report mentions five major mergers and acquisitions that happened in the first nine months of 2020:
- Teladoc Health acquired Livongo Health for $18.5 billion.
- Blackstone acquired Ancestry for $4.7 billion.
- Invitae acquired ArcherDX for $1.4 billion.
- Healthcare Merger Corporation acquired Specialists On Call for $720 million.
- Teladoc Health acquired InTouch Health for $600 million.
"Digital health and especially telehealth, has taken off amid COVID-19 and VC funding has already surpassed funding raised in any full year to date," Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital Group, said in the report. "There were five IPOs in digital health, which is unprecedented and we also had one of the biggest M&A deals in digital health history in the third quarter."