Author: Brian Blum

Israeli digital health companies raised $1 billion in the first half of 2021, exceeding the entire amount invested in all of 2020.

This growth reflects the overwhelming interest in digital health investments since the Covid-19 pandemic began. Globally, $20 billion was invested in this sector in the first six months of 2021.

Here are key findings from a Start-Up Nation Central report on investments in Israel’s digital health sector:

• Thirteen rounds exceeded $10 million in the first half of 2021.
• The median round grew by more than 50 percent compared to last year, reaching $30 million for later-stage rounds and $5 million for early-stage rounds.
• In the past, 80% of investments were in the remote monitoring, decision support and diagnostics spaces. In 2021, these sectors accounted for just 53% of the total.
• Companies developing diagnostics solutions raised $328 million in the first half of 2021, slightly below the $348 million raised over the course of the full year 2020. Decision support attracted $236 million while digital therapeutics raised $147 million.
• Four out of the six companies that raised the most in the second quarter of 2021 are offering business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) solutions.
• Nortal Vision’s $60 million Series D raise was the largest amount ever raised by an ophthalmology digital health company in Israel, and the fourth round in the Israeli ophthalmology space since the beginning of the year.
• Among the largest rounds in the digital therapeutics sector were hypertension management system Hello Heart ($47 million) and AI-driven microbiome personalized nutrition company DayTwo  ($37 million).
• Looking for more efficient ways to pay healthcare providers? Startup VIM raised $36 million to do just that.
• BreezoMeter, a company at the intersection of cleantech and digital health, raised an additional $30 million this year.
• Cynerio, which does cybersecurity for healthcare, raised $30 million and launched its own health-tech VC operation.
• Exits have been relatively sparse in 2021. PixCell Medical was acquired by a South Korean semiconductor company for an undisclosed amount. Pulse’n’More went public on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, raising $42 million.

Photo: Reuters