Mary-Louise Hoffman
A Mercom Capital Group report says venture capitalists pumped about $1.2 billion into the healthcare information technology industry during 2015’s second quarter, up from the $784 million recorded during the previous quarter.
The health IT sector closed 138 deals in Q2, compared with 142 during Q1, and secured nearly $2 billion in VC investments over the past six months, about $6 million less than in 2014’s first half, Mercom said.
“In the healthcare IT sector, companies raised more money through initial public offerings than venture capital this quarter,†said Mercom co-founder and CEO Raj Prabhu.
Cloud-based medical technology firm NantHealth raised the largest amount of VC funding last quarter, amounting to $200 million, followed by online employee wellness platform developer Virgin Pulse with $92 million and telemedicine companies Doctor on Demand and MDLIVE at $50 million each.
A total of 271 investors participated in HIT deals during the second quarter, the report says.
Mercom found that the number of merger and acquisition transactions in the sector reached 53 during Q2 and the biggest disclosed M&A deal was MEDNAX‘s $500 million purchase of Virtual Radiologic Corp.
