VC Funding in Healthcare IT Sector Continues Torrid Pace in Q1 2013 With $493 Million, Reports Mercom Capital Group

AUSTIN, TX--(Marketwired - Apr 17, 2013) - Mercom Capital Group, llc, a global communications and consulting firm, released its report on funding and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity for the Healthcare IT (HIT) sector during the first quarter of 2013.

Venture capital (VC) funding in the HIT sector continued to gain momentum in another record quarter with $493 million raised. There were 104 funding deals in this quarter compared to 51 in the previous quarter. There were also 42 early stage deals this quarter compared to 14 in Q4 2012.

Figure:  Healthcare IT VC Funding Q1 2013: http://mercomcapital.com/assets/images/Charts/HIT-Q1-2013/HIT_1_001.png

"The trend we began to see last year of VCs investing in consumer-focused companies like mobile health, telehealth, personal health, social health, and scheduling, rating & shopping has become much more pronounced," commented Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital Group. "The enormous market opportunity in consumer-focused health has appeared to pique the interest of investors and is likely to continue to grow as witnessed by the surge in VC activity."

The Top 5 VC funding deals in Q1 2013 was led by the $41 million raise by Health Catalyst, a provider of healthcare data warehousing. That was followed by $40 million raised by xG Health Solutions, a spinoff of Geisinger Health System that offers population health data analytics and patient and population-focused care management. NantHealth, a company focused on delivering next-generation care through the use of advanced secure fiber networks, cloud computing and wireless mobile technology, raised $31 million. Rounding out the Top 5 was Fitbit, a fitness and health tracker company, and One Medical Group, a provider of online primary care services, which both raised $30 million.

Figure: Healthcare IT Top 5 VC Deals Q1-2013: http://mercomcapital.com/assets/images/Charts/HIT-Q1-2013/HIT_2_001.png

108 investors participated in deals in the first quarter of 2013 with ten investors involved in multiple funding rounds. Investors with multiple rounds included: Blueprint Health, Google Ventures, Maverick Capital, Merck Global Health Innovation (GHI) Fund, Nike+ Accelerator, Norwest Venture Partners, Oak Investment Partners, Psilos Group, The Social+Capital Partnership and Y Combinator.

There were 46 M&A transactions this quarter. Health Information Management (HIM) companies attracted the most acquirers with 22 transactions, followed closely by service providers with 11 acquisitions. The largest disclosed transaction was athenahealth's acquisition of Epocrates, a mobile health company developing point-of-care medical applications, for $293 million, followed by Allscripts' acquisition of dbMotion, an Israeli developer of a service oriented architecture-based interoperability platform that enables healthcare organizations and health information exchanges (HIE) to integrate and leverage their information assets, for $235 million, followed by JLL Partners' acquisition of BioClinica, a provider of clinical trial management solutions, for $123 million.

Figure: Healthcare IT M&A Q1 2013: http://mercomcapital.com/assets/images/Charts/HIT-Q1-2013/HIT_3_001.png

For a copy of Mercom's Q1 2013 Healthcare IT report, visit: http://store.mercom.mercomcapital.com/products-page/healthcare-it-reports/hit-q1-2013-report/

About Mercom Capital Group
Mercom Capital Group, llc, is a global communications and consulting firm focused on healthcare information technology (HIT), cleantech and financial communications. Mercom delivers market intelligence reports covering HIT, solar energy, wind energy and smart grid. Mercom's consulting division advises companies on strategies for strategic decision making and new market entry and provides custom market research. Mercom's communications division helps companies and financial institutions build powerful relationships with media, analysts, government decision makers, local communities and strategic partners. Visit: http://www.mercomcapital.com.
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