A new analysis from Accenture found ten companies earned more than one-third (38 percent) of digital health funding last year. The companies and the 2016 funding amounts include:
- Onduo ($500 million)
- Ping An ($500 million)
- Human Longevity ($220 million)
- Guardant Health ($200 million)
- iCarbonX ($199 million)
- Chunyu Yisheng ($183 million)
- Flatiron ($175 million)
- Jawbone ($165 million)
- Clover ($160 million)
- Health Catalyst ($140 million)
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
Via email, Brian Kalis, Accenture’s managing director of digital health, chalked this up to the fact that the aforementioned companies have found a fit for their business models. Additionally, he mentioned many of the companies (like Guardant Health, Jawbone and Health Catalyst) focus on six overarching areas that received the majority of digital health funding.
As part of its assessment, Accenture found 73 percent of investor funding last year went to the following six categories:
- Provider efficiency ($1.2 billion)
- Virtual care/coordination ($0.6 billion)
- Wearable devices ($0.6 billion)
- Personalized medicine ($0.5 billion)
- Enhanced diagnostics ($0.5 billion)
- Big data and analytics ($0.5 billion)
Marc Warren, who co-authored the analysis within Accenture Strategy, explained why these six areas stood out.
A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
The provider efficiency category includes tools for payers and providers to boost operational efficiencies. Virtual care/coordination is a theme that will keep growing in popularity, particularly due to current inefficiencies in care delivery. Wearables are a maturing field, and “their ability to detect specific biometrics is increasing, which we forecast will soon clash with clinical grade devices,” Warren said via email.
Personalized medicine investments point toward a future of relying on an individual’s genetics and evidence-based medicine. Better access to data and technology are making enhanced diagnostics a more viable field. Finally, major healthcare players are working to advance data collection, real-time analytics and artificial intelligence.
Accenture’s analysis also found investors are slowly focusing on later stage startups rather than newly minted ones, signaling an evolution in the market.
“Early investments had initially focused on experimentation in new services, solutions or offerings; however, that’s changed, as efforts have seen success and signaled to the market where a solution can create and unlock value,” Kalis said. “As a result, the market is investing to scale where they have seen success and we see a market with more mature companies seeking later stage funding.”
The assessment includes a prediction by Accenture, as well: The digital health funding market will hit $7 billion by the end of 2017.
The market was at $7 billion in 2015, though Accenture anticipated it would be at $4.3 billion. In 2016, it dropped to $6.4 billion. Accenture predicted funding would hit $5.3 billion that year.
To conduct its research, Accenture analyzed over 4,000 companies across the globe. The funding analysis is based on a sample of startups that earned funding between 2008 and 2017.
Photo: MixAll Studio, Getty Images
