The digital health sector emerged as a juggernaut during the COVID-19 pandemic, with almost $15 billion invested in privately-held digital health companies in 2020 and nearly $30 billion invested last year, according to our good friends at Rock Health.
Previous annual records—including the total dollar amount invested in digital health, number of deals and number of funding rounds larger than $100 million—were not just shattered in 2021, but completely left in the dust.
Rock Health points out that mental health remains the most-funded digital health clinical indication, with startups in the space raising more than $5 billion last year. Companies with technology to optimize and streamline R&D for biopharma and medical technology were the most-funded value proposition, with startups in that arena raising $5.8 billion.
For the past few years, the public health emergency of COVID-19 has served as rocket fuel for an industry…
