16 early-stage healthtech startups you need to know

Ronny Kerr · February 27, 2017 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/48fc

From online marketplaces to wearables for mothers, these are the fastest-growing healthtech startups

Editor's note: Our Splash Health, Wellness and Wearables event is coming up on March 23 in San Francisco. We'll have Mario Schlosser (Founder & CEO of Oscar Health), Brian Singerman (Partner, Founders Fund), Steve Jurvetson (Draper Fisher Jurvetson), J. Craig Venter (Human Longevity), Lynne Chou (Partner, Kleiner Perkins), Michael Dixon (Sequoia Capital), Patrick Chung (Xfund), Check out the full lineup and register for tickets before they jump! If you’re a healthcare startup and you’re interested in being part of our competition, learn more and register here.

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With our premier healthtech event just around the corner, we thought it would be worth taking a look at some of latest healthtech startups receiving large Seed and Series A rounds in the last year. Using data from Pitchbook, my aim was to identify the eight startups that raised the biggest Series A rounds in 2016 as well as the eight startups that raised the biggest seed rounds in 2016.

First, the big picture.

In 2016, healthtech startups raised $2.6 billion, down 2.8 percent from 2015, when companies raised a total of $2.7 billion. This graph illustrates the huge jump in dollars healthtech experienced over the past few years, with only a small decrease occurring last year:

As far as number of deals, the data looks fairly similar. In 2016, healthtech startups closed a total of 362 deals, down 7.4 percent from the 391 deals closed in 2015. Still, last year's figures top fundraising rounds from years prior to 2015:

Today, healthtech is a monster encompassing a wide swath of technologies from software solutions to physical devices for patients to bioengineered pharmaceuticals. For the purposes of this piece, I've focused on healthtech as opposed to life sciences. This is how Pitchbook defines the two categories:

Healthtech: Companies that provide mobility and other information technologies to improve healthcare delivery while decreasing costs. It entails the use of technology and services – including cloud computing, internet services and social mobility – to optimize patient-centric healthcare.
Life Sciences: Companies involved in sciences dealing with living organisms and life processes, including biology, pharmaceuticals, biomedical technology and nutraceuticals.

Without further ado, here are the 16 early-stage healthtech startups you need to know about.

— Series A —

Blink Health
Amount: $68.8 million
Backers: 8VC
HQ: New York, NY
What: Blink Health is an online marketplace that offers low prices on over 15,000 prescription drugs. Patients search and pay for their medication through the online platform, and then pick up the prescription at their local pharmacy.
Categories: Healthcare marketplaces, Healthtech

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Paiyipai Group
Amount: $45.6 million
Backers: Han Xiaohong (President of Ciming Health Checkup Group), Mountain View Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Yilian Capital
HQ: Beijing, China
What: Paiyipai offers a mobile-based photo recognition technology for medical and pharmaceutical organizations to scan and analyze medical records.
Categories: EMR (Electronic Management Records), Healthtech

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Woundtech
Amount: $40 million
Backers: Aldrich Capital Partners
HQ: Hollywood, FL
What: Woundtech offers a SaaS-based wound care management solution that combines in-person care specialist in addition to a telemedicine platform, proprietary analytics, and software.
Categories: Analytics, Healthtech, Software as a service, Telemedicine

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Forward
Amount: $30 million
Backers: Aaron Levie (co-founder and CEO of Box), Eric Schmidt (executive chairman of Alphabet), Garrett Camp (co-founder of Uber and StumbleUpon), Joe Lonsdale (founding partner at 8VC), Joshua Kopelman (founder of Half.com), Joshua Kushner (founder and managing partner of Thrive Capital), Marc Benioff (founder, chairman, and CEO of Salesforce)
HQ: San Francisco, CA
What: Forward has been described as the Apple Store of doctors' offices. Membership at Forward costs $149 per month, which earns the patient access to 24/7 health advice and information, doctors equipped with AI-powered tools, and advanced software and hardware.
Categories: Artificial intelligence (AI), Care services, Healthtech

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StatRad
Amount: $29.2 million
Backers: Undisclosed
HQ: San Diego, CA
What: StatRad primarily offers teleradiology services. That is, it helps radiology groups and physicians in different physical locations share and transmit patient images, including x-rays, CTs, and MRIs. The company also provides medical image management technology.
Categories: Healthtech, Telemedicine

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Pieces Technologies
Amount: $21.6 million
Backers: Pacific Advantage Capital (PAC Partners), Jump Capital, Children’s Health, Order of Saint Francis Healthcare System, Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation (PCCI), and others
HQ: Dallas, TX
What: Pieces Tech provides software that combines predictive analytics and clinical insights to offer impactful solutions to hospitals, health systems, and community-based organizations. The solution can be used to identify and prevent avoidable mortality and re-hospitalization due to chronic diseases and illnesses.
Categories: Healthtech, Predictive analytics

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Pear Therapeutics (PEAR)
Amount: $20 million
Backers: 5AM Ventures, Arboretum Ventures, JAZZ Venture Partners, Bridge Builders Collaborative, and others
HQ: Boston, MA
What: PEAR offers "digital therapies" it calls "eFormulations" to treat diseases and enhance the efficacy of pharmaceuticals. The company uses mobile apps, virtual reality, predictive analytics, and other technologies to improve the care offered by medications.
Categories: Healthtech, Mobile, Predictive analytics, Virtual Reality

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MindCare Solutions
Amount: $19 million
Backers: Epiphany Health Ventures, MedCare Investment Funds, WP Global Partners
HQ: Franklin, TN
What: MindCare uses a behaviorial model of care via telemedicine to provide healthcare services to mental health patients.
Categories: Healthtech, Telemedicine

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— Seed —

Webbhälsa
Amount: $6.8 million
Backers: Creandum, Index Ventures, Project A Ventures
HQ: Stockholm, Sweden
What: Webbhälsa operates KRY, an app for iOS and Android that provides video consultations with doctors and psychologists who can offer advice, prescriptions, referrals to further care, or sick notes.
Categories: Care services, Healthtech, Mobile

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Min Doktor
Amount: $6.8 million
Backers: EQT Ventures
HQ: Malmö, Sweden
What: Min Doktor's app for iOS and Android offers a 24/7 platform for patients to ask questions about symptoms they're experiencing, message with doctors, and get diagnosis and treatment.
Categories: Care services, Healthtech, Mobile

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Vitagene
Amount: $5.5 million
Backers: Spectrum 28, Viking Global Investors, Neil Hunt (CPO of Netflix), Ken Goldman (SVP and CFO at Yahoo), and Yuri Milner (founder of Digital Sky Technologies)
HQ: San Francisco, CA
What: For $99, Vitagene offers a DNA test that provides information around one's ancestry and health traits along with recommendations around diet, exercise, and supplements based on DNA, lifestyle, family history, and life goals.
Categories: Healthtech

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Imagen Technologies
Amount: $5 million
Backers: Undisclosed
HQ: New York, NY
What: Still in stealth mode, Imagen is a developer of medical imaging technology.
Categories: Healthtech, Medical Devices

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LetsMD
Amount: $5 million
Backers: Anupam Mittal (founder and CEO of People Group), Calcutta Angels, Currae Healthtech Fund, LetsVenture Online, WaterBridge Ventures
HQ: New Delhi, India
What: Currently in beta, LetsMD lets patients in India compare costs of surgeries among different healthcare service providers.
Categories: Healthcare marketplace, Healthtech

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Stasis Labs
Amount: $5 million
Backers: RTP-Healthcare Ventures, Wonder Ventures, Techstars Ventures, and others
HQ: Los Angeles, CA
What: Stasis provides a physical monitor and cloud-based platform to continuously track a patient's vital organs, including parameters like heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, 3-lead ECG, respiration rate, blood pressure and body temperature.

Categories: Cloud Computing, Healthtech, Medical Devices

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CareSkore
Amount: $4.3 million
Backers: Cota Capital, Storm Ventures, Rising Tide Fund, Liquid 2 Ventures, and others
HQ: Mountain View, CA
What: Calling itself a "personalized population management" company, CareSkore offers a platform for healthcare providers to predict in real-time disease-specific workflows and care plans for patients.
Categories: Healthtech

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Bloomlife
Amount: $4 million
Backers: QED Investors, DST Systems, Commerce Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners, and UMB
HQ: San Francisco, CA
What: Bloomlife provides a smart wearable for expecting mothers to track contractions in real-time. Bonus: Bloomlife won the Honorable Mention award at Vator Splash Health in 2016.
Categories: Healthtech, Wearables, Women