By Staff Reporters
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Venture capital funding in the digital health space cooled significantly in 2022 following a red-hot 2021; according to Healthcare Brew. Overall, digital health companies raised $15.3 billion last year, down substantially from the $29.1 billion raised in 2021—but still above the $14.1 billion raised in 2020, according to research from Rock Health, a seed fund that supports digital health startups.
Analysts predict investors will still put a good amount of money into digital health in 2023, particularly in alternative care, drug development technology, and software that reduces physician workload. But investors will likely pull dollars away from a few specific sectors this year.
“There is definitely more diligence, a little bit more skepticism in the investments that are made. So you tend to see investments go slower because diligence is taking longer or investors are being a little bit more conservative,” Adriana Krasniansky, head of research at Rock Health, told Healthcare Brew.
Direct-to-consumer products. The first sector in which Krasniansky expects to see funding slow this year is direct-to-consumer (DTC) products. One reason is that with recession fears, “Consumer spend is not as readily available,” Krasniansky said.
But Apple’s new data privacy rules are also partially to blame. As of April 2021, apps sold through Apple’s App Store must ask users for permission to track activity, and users can opt out. That tracking data is crucial for advertisers to create personalized ads.
“Apple’s privacy measures have impacted customer acquisition costs, making the DTC channel more challenging for a lot of startups—and not just digital health startups,” said Krasniansky.
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Filed under: "Advisors Only", "Doctors Only", Accounting, Career Development, Ethics, Experts Invited, Information Technology, Investing, Taxation | Tagged: Adriana Krasniansky, Healthcare Brew, rock health, VC, VC Healthcare, Venture Capital |
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