Healthcare-venture funding is slowing down after two years of investment mania.
Digital-health startups banked $6 billion in the first quarter of 2022, trailing the $7.3 billion the industry raised in the fourth quarter of 2021.
That number is still much higher than pre-pandemic funding amounts. Still, investors are feeling the shift; with a potential recession on the horizon, venture firms are proceeding with caution.
Analysts have been raising concerns about inflated valuations for the past year, and the poor market performance of the healthcare companies that went public last year is now dragging startup valuations down, Bill Evans, the CEO of Rock Health, said.
Evans said those factors make the startups that land large funding rounds this year — and that cross the unicorn threshold of a $1 billion or higher valuation — especially notable.
"I suspect that late-stage investors attaching a high valuation to a growing company are doing so in a really thoughtful manner," he said.
Thirteen companies have found their footing in this year's shaky market, sending their valuations to the $1 billion mark or higher.
Pitchbook provided company data, including valuations, to Insider for this story. This list is composed of healthcare companies — which all include a digital-health focus — and excludes companies working primarily with pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and medical devices.
Here are 2022's newly minted healthcare unicorns.
While working as a medical receptionist in an undergraduate pre-med program, Alamin Uddin, the CEO of NexHealth, saw many of the challenges — like a lack of connection between scheduling software and the patient's medical record, or trouble contacting patients before an appointment — providers face when managing patients.
He graduated in 2015 and launched NexHealth two years later with his cofounder, Waleed Asif, to tackle those problems.
The startup's platform aims to simplify how patients interact with their doctors online, making tasks like appointment scheduling and messaging a provider easier while automating aspects like reminder texts to patients on the back end for medical and dental practices.
The company also provides tools to help developers integrate their tech with electronic health-record systems.
Buckley Ventures led the Series B round, with participation from angel investors Lachy Groom, Jack Altman, Scott Belsky, Shreyas Doshi, Eric Glyman, Shahed Khan, Packy McCormick and Rahul Vohra. The fresh capital brings the startup's total funding to $176 million.
With digital health solutions exploding in popularity, virtual care has become less of an added bonus and more of a must-have for healthcare practices. Wheel emerged to support the shift.
The company provides a virtual-care platform and national clinician network to help companies ramp up telehealth services faster and at reduced costs. Wheel facilitated 1.3 million patient visits last year, and the company said it expects to triple its visit volume by the end of 2022.
Lightspeed Venture Partners and Tiger Global co-led the $150 million Series C round. Coatue and Salesforce Ventures, along with existing investors CRV, Tusk Venture Partners, and Silverton Partners, also participated.
The company hasn't publicly confirmed its valuation and declined to comment on Pitchbook's data.
While tech-based chronic-care companies are now common, Omada Health was one of the early leaders.
The company began with diabetes care and has since branched into several other chronic conditions, including hypertension , musculoskeletal conditions, and behavioral health. Its model aims for evidence-based behavior change, with remote-monitoring devices and care teams to personalize virtual programs for its members.
Omada also has its own internal research team — the Omada Insights Lab — to validate and hone its care interventions.
Fidelity led the $192 million Series E round, with participation from aMoon and existing investors Perceptive Advisors, Wellington Management, and Civilization Ventures. The company has raised $449.5 million since it was founded over a decade ago.
Rumors of Omada's public debut have circulated for years, with the company being pressured to make a move after Teladoc acquired rival diabetes startup Livongo in 2020. But CEO Sean Duffy told Bloomberg in February that the company wants to wait until the equity markets stabilize before going public.
Nurses began leaving their jobs in droves during the pandemic, and industry experts expect those staffing shortages to intensify in the next few years.
IntelyCare helps long-term health facilities fill those gaps. The company matches nurses with open positions at the post-acute-care centers while taking care of associated costs like travel.
Janus Henderson Investors led IntelyCare's $115 million Series C round. Longitude Capital, Leeds Illuminate, Endeavour Vision, Revelation Partners, and Kaiser Permanente Ventures also joined the round.
The company said its annual revenue has grown by more than 850% since its February 2020 Series B.
Dr. Chris Mansi started Viz.ai out of frustration. During a 2018 TedMed presentation, the former neurosurgeon told the story of a patient he'd operated on who had developed a blood clot in her brain from a car crash. The patient died twelve hours after the successful surgery — because the surgery came too late.
It usually take hours to get a patient into surgery, even in an emergency. Viz.ai's products aim to reduce that span to minutes.
The startup's tech uses artificial intelligence to analyze a patient's scan, alerts specialists to potential disease found in the scan, and lets specialists view those analyses directly on their phones while coordinating next steps with the patient's care team. Viz.ai also offers specific workflows for different conditions, like strokes and pulmonary embolisms.
Tiger Global and Insight Partners led the $100 million Series D round. Existing investors Scale Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Threshold, GV, Sozo Ventures, CRV, and Susa also participated.
Biofourmis is diving deeper into at-home care management, and big names in venture capital have stepped up to bet on its vision.
The digital-therapeutics company works with health systems and pharmaceutical companies to support patients undergoing or recovering from medical treatment. The startup provides a data-analytics platform that lets providers monitor their patients' disease progression, plus wearables and an app to keep patients engaged.
General Atlantic led the Series D round, bringing the company's total funding to $445 million to date. CVS Health also participated in the round alongside existing investors.
Biofourmis previously raised $100 million in Series C funding in 2020, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with MassMutual Ventures, Openspace Ventures, EDBI, Sequoia Capital India, and Faiz Mayalakkara joining.
In an email to Insider, Kuldeep Singh Rajput, the CEO of Biofourmis, hinted that after receiving the massive capital infusion, the startup is looking into potential M&A opportunities. He also said that Biofourmis currently works with 15 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies and plans to expand those partnerships this year.
Deal size: $30 million ($80 million total over two rounds, announced together)
Several healthcare-staffing startups have emerged in the past decade to meet increasing demand, and Clipboard Health has skyrocketed to the top of the ranks.
The company's healthcare-talent marketplace lets workers book open shifts at nearby facilities through Clipboard Health's app. More than a thousand facilities in over 30 US cities post openings on the app, according to the company.
"Our main focus has been nursing and nursing-assistant roles, but we see similar dynamics in other healthcare professions and other industries. Those are the growth opportunities," Wei Deng, the CEO of Clipboard Health, told Insider in an email.
Sequoia Capital led the $30 million Series C round, while IVP led the $50 million Series B. The company said it has raised $94.1 million to date.
Clarify set out to enable value-based healthcare payments, reimbursing providers for the quality of care they provide rather than the quantity, through analytics.
It works with providers, health plans, and life sciences companies to do just that.
The company landed $150 million in an April Series D round SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led. BlackRock, Memorial Hermann Health System, and existing investors Insight Partners, Spark Capital, KKR, Aspenwood Ventures, Rivas Capital, and Sigmas Group also participated in the round.
Clarify has raised nearly $353 million to date. The company has also made two acquisitions in the past year, grabbing behavioral-economics startup Embedded Healthcare in March and Apervita's value-optimization business in October.
Deal size: $59.4 million ($132 million total over two rounds, announced together)
Athelas started as a 2014 hackathon project.
Tanay Tandon, the CEO of Athelas, and his cofounder Deepika Bodapati built the concept overnight, designing a blood-imaging tool attached to a smartphone. That design eventually became Athelas One, which allows patients to measure their white-blood-cell counts from home.
Now, Athelas offers multiple devices for blood testing, medication adherence, and more, partnering with hospitals and health systems to help patients manage chronic conditions from afar.
General Catalyst led the first $73 million funding round, which closed in April 2021, and Tribe Capital led the $59 million round, bringing the company to a total $132 million Series B. Sequoia Capital, Greenoaks, Human Capital, and Initialized Capital also participated, along with startup accelerator YCombinator, which Athelas graduated from in 2016.
Glen Tullman served as the CEO of virtual diabetes -care startup Livongo from 2014 to 2018, and as its chair for two years after. When Teladoc acquired Livongo for $13.9 billion in October 2020, Tullman took on a new project.
Transcarent launched publicly in March 2021 with a new approach to employer-sponsored healthcare. Through Transcarent, employees don't pay premiums or coinsurance, and employers don't pay Transcarent monthly fees for its insured employees. The startup makes money by taking a portion of the costs it saves those employers.
Three other Livongo employees have joined Transcarent's leadership team, along with Hemant Taneja, a Livongo founder and General Catalyst managing partner. The company has raised $298 million since its founding.
Kinnevik and Human Capital led the $200 million Series C round, with participation from Ally Bridge Group, Northwell Health, Intermountain Healthcare, and Rush University Medical Center, and existing investors including General Catalyst, 7wireVentures, Alta Partners, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Jove Equity Partners, Threshold Ventures, and GreatPoint Ventures.
BostonGene is developing tools to more closely evaluate disease properties in the country's sickest patients.
BostonGene's software uses artificial intelligence to profile the immune systems of cancer patients — and the molecular makeup of their tumors — to identify potential therapies.
The tech analyzes the tumor and its surrounding environment to detect mutations and other biomarkers to help doctors determine which treatments might be most effective for each patient.
The Japanese IT company NEC Corporation led the Series B round, with participation from Impact Investment Capital and Japan Industrial Partners, bringing the startup's total funding to $200 million.
While the software is only currently available to oncologists in the US, BostonGene said it would be expanding its offerings to Japan and other Asian countries in partnership with NEC, which recently launched a healthcare and life-sciences business.
Contrary to its competitors Apple and Fitbit, which produce wearables made for the wrist, Oura Health believes more accurate health stats can be determined from the finger.
The company sells a smart ring that tracks its wearer's vital signs, like heart rate and temperature, with a monthly membership fee for extra insights. While the Oura Ring is mostly marketed as a consumer product, the company shifted its strategy last year for employers buying the rings to control COVID-19 outbreaks, after a December 2020 study found that skin temperature changes could help predict the wearer's risk of infection with COVID-19.
Oura Health didn't share how much money it raised to hit the $2.55 billion valuation or which investors contributed to the round. Its past investors include Lifeline Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Temasek, The Chernin Group, JAZZ Venture Partners, and MSD Capital.
The company raised the funds while navigating turnover in its top role. Harpreet Singh Rai, the former CEO who had worked at Oura Health since 2016, announced he was stepping down in December. Tom Hale joined Oura Health to fill the position in late April.
"We see a future where Oura's technology can expand into holistic health — including illness detection, reproductive health, recovery and mental health," Hale told Insider in an email about his future plans for the business.
Notching the highest valuation on this list, Somatus works to prevent one of the most common chronic conditions — kidney disease — from worsening to the point of kidney failure.
The company teams up with local providers, including kidney specialists and primary-care doctors, to facilitate in-home care to stop kidney disease from progressing. Somatus also offers a data-analytics and care-coordination platform for providers, at-home dialysis treatments, and help for patients seeking a kidney transplant.
Wellington Management led the Series E round. RA Capital Management, GIC, and Fidelity joined the round, along with existing investors Anthem, Blue Venture Fund, Deerfield Management Company, Flare Capital Partners, Inova Health System, Longitude Capital, and Optum Ventures.
The company said it expects to serve over 150,000 members in 2022 through its government and commercial-health plan partnerships.