Digital health firms raise $6.9 mn from VCs in second quarter of FY 2015

With the growing rage of digital India, the digital health sector has attracted $6.9 million venture capital (VC) funds across nine deals during the second quarter of current fiscal. Reportedly, in the last year, only one M&A transaction has been signed in the same period, as per a report by Mercom Capital Group, a global communications and research firm.

The report on funding and M&A activities for the healthcare information technology/ digital health sector said, during the second quarter of 2015, the VC funding in the digital health sector has increased by 53 per cent, coming in at $1.2 billion in 138 deals this quarter. Out of this, there were nine deals involving Indian companies raising a combined $6.9 million in four disclosed deals.

During the second quarter of 2014, while global VC funding in the digital health sector exceeded with $1.8 billion rose in 161 deals, there was only one deal involving an Indian company. In the first quarter of 2015, the global VC funding in the sector dipped about 35 per cent, coming in at $784 million in 142 deals, out of which, there were three deals involving Indian companies raising a combined $30.4 million.

According to Mercom Capital, notable transactions during the second quarter of 2015 in India includes 1mg (previously HealthKartPlus), an online price shopping and drug delivery company that allows users to search for medicines and get information on dosage, common uses, and warnings, raised $6 million from Deep Kalra, Founder, MakeMyTrip, Sequoia Capital, Omidyar Network, Intel Capital and Kae Capital.

Cooey, a developer of health monitoring IoT app that intends to collect, store, analyse and provide insights of vital signs for patients, raised $470,000 from Digital Circuits President Subhash Goyal.

Similarly, AllizHealth, a provider of cloud-based wellness and preventive healthcare solutions has secured US$350,000 from Aniruddha Malpani, Medical Director, Malpani Infertility Clinic, Ranjan Pai, CEO and MD, Manipal Education and Medical Group, Kishore Ganji, Founder and CEO, Astir IT Solutions, entrepreneur-turned-serial investor Sanjay Mehta, and Prashant Choksey, Founder and CEO, Choksey Constructions and Co-Founder of Mumbai Angels.

Chennai-based iMMi Life, a provider of advisory and recommendations services for ECG and heart problems, raised $80,000 from Unitus Seed Fund under the StartHealth Investment Program.

Not to forget, HealthifyMe, a developer of a health and fitness mobile app has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Micromax. Healthians, an online healthcare marketplace that helps users discover affordable healthcare, using a quality and price transparency tool, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from cricketer Yuvraj Singh’s YouWeCan Ventures, an early stage venture fund. MobieFit Technologies, a developer of a health and fitness mobile application, received seed funding from Prototyze.

Similarly, Hyderabad-based Truweight, a provider of weight loss counselling for people throughout India, raised an undisclosed amount from Kalaari Capital.  Zoctr Health Network, a healthcare services company that allows users to buy health related packages and individual services online, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from a group of angels including Rajeev Agrawal, partner at Ambit Pragma Ventures.

Nevertheless, there were 56 Mergers & Acquisition (M&A) transactions out of which, 14 are disclosed in the Health IT sector during the first quarter of 2015.

Practo, a developer of a physician search engine to book appointments and rate providers and of practice management software has recently acquired FitHo Wellness, a developer of a mobile application for health and fitness management.

As far as M&A transactions are concerned, there were 53 M&A transactions out of which, eight are disclosed in the health IT sector, globally, in the current fiscal. There were a record number of M&A transactions in the health care IT sector in Q2, 2014, with 57 transactions while 12 are disclosed. There were no M&A transactions based in India in Q2 2014.