The tech hubs on the coasts aren’t the only places where innovation in digital health is taking root. Last month, four new health technology startup programs made headlines, including a new Healthbox program in Jacksonville, Fla., the Dreamit Health accelerator in Philadelphia and the Health Wildcatters in Dallas, Tex. (This week, The Iron Yard in Greenville, S.C. also jumped on the bandwagon.)
For technology to make meaningful improvements in health care, it has to penetrate communities across the country — so it’s a positive sign that digital health hubs are popping up nationwide (even though it could intensify the much-discussed “Series A crunch.”)
In total, April was an off-the-charts month for health technology funding, according to data from Startup Health. The sector raised a total of $ 322.72 million, which is an increase of 404 percent over the same period last year.
Here’s a quick look at last month’s activity:
- Sensors again attracted a great deal of investor interest. In addition to the funding raised by Watermark, a company behind sleep monitoring technology, companies including MC10, which is working with Reebok on skullcap-like head impact monitor, and fetal monitoring system Sense4Baby raised funding.
- While it wasn’t among the top three sub-sectors to receive investments, telehealth also had a strong month in April, with companies like HealthSpot, PresenceLearning and Remote Medicine receiving healthy amounts of capital. That tracks with recent research indicating that the market is expected to grow 53 percent this year and six-fold by 2017.
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