Health IT VC funding more than doubles in 2014

Print 21 January 2015
Katie Dvorak, FierceHealthIT

Healthcare technology had a great year for venture capital funding in 2014, raking in more than double the amount it did a year prior, according to a Mercom Capital Group report.

The health IT sector saw 670 deals that brought in $4.7 billion in funds. That's a major boost from the 571 deals made in 2013 that totaled $2.2 billion.

"In the five years since we started tracking funding data, the 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," Raj Prabhu, CEO and co-founder of Mercom Capital Group, said in an announcement.

The final numbers for 2014 are not totally surprising. The amount brought in broke records almost every quarter throughout the year. HIT mergers and acquisitions grew by 17 percent in the first half of 2014, compared to the second half of 2013, according to a report by Berkery Noyes. And another Mercom report released in July said VC funding and M&As saw record numbers in the second quarter of 2014.

For the whole year, health information management brought in the biggest chunk of funding, followed by mobile health technology and personal health technology, according to this latest Mercom report.

Technologies that saw significant year-over-year growth include mHealth, telehealth, data analytics and wearables, according to the report.

As for mergers and acquisitions, there were 219 M&As in 2014 compared to 165 in 2013. Some of the biggest M&As included a $4.4 billion acquisition of MultiPlan by Starr Investment Holdings and Partners Group and the acquisition of TriZetto by Cognizant for $2.7 billion.

In addition, according to StartUp Health's annual report, investors pumped a record $6.5 billion into digital health ventures during 2014, with data and analytics as the No. 1 category.

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