'Global VC funding in healthcare IT at $1.6 bn in Q1; Indian tally at $61 mn'

Global venture capital funding in the healthcare IT sector stood at $1.6 billion by way of 165 deals, including 11 Indian deals worth $61 million, says a report.

Since 2010, VC funding in the healthcare IT sector has crossed $20 billion, Mercom Capital Group, which compiled the report, said in a release.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, VC funding, including private equity and corporate venture capital, almost doubled to $1.6 billion in January-March 2017 from $845 million in the fourth quarter of 2016.

In the first quarter of 2016, nearly $1.4 billion was raised through 146 deals. There were 11 Indian healthcare IT companies that received VC funding and two M&A transactions in the first quarter of 2017.

Notable Indian VC transactions in the first quarter of this year include Practo, a physician search engine used to book appointments and rate providers, raising $55 million, and WeHive Technologies (TinyStep), an online parenting service that focuses on providing information, advice and a social network for parents, raising $2 million in seed funding from Flipkart.

Among other Indian VC deals, Celes Care — a virtual health clinic for women — raised $1.5 million, while InnerHour — an online psychological wellness platform — secured $450,000 in funding from Venture Works and financial advisory firm Batlivala & Karani Securities.

“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, and publicly-traded Digital Health companies fared much better in the January-March quarter than last year,” Mercom Capital Group CEO and Co-Founder Raj Prabhu said.

The top VC deals in the January-March quarter included $200 million raised by Hudong Feng Technology, $115 million raised by Alignment Healthcare, $100 million raised by PatientsLikeMe, $90 million raised by Nuna, and $85 million raised by PointClickCare.

Category-wise, healthcare practice-centric companies received 35 per cent of the funding in the first quarter of this year, raising $574 million in 50 deals, while consumer-centric companies received 65 per cent of the funding this quarter, bringing in $1 billion in 115 deals, the report added.

Health IT VC funding deals were spread across 19 countries in Q1 2017 and a total of 306 investors participated in funding deals in the January-March quarter 2017 compared to 340 investors in the October-December period of 2016.