mHealth, Health IT Investment Break Records In Q1 Of 2014

Investment in mobile health and other health IT technologies has been off the charts during the first quarter of 2014, says a new report by Rock Health, continuing the meteoric rise of mobile health technologies funded by more traditional venture capitalists and newfangled crowd-funding campaigns.  Technology companies have already scooped up more than $700 million since January of 2014, representing an 87% year-over-year growth versus the same quarter last year.

January led the way with huge deals in analytics and big data, telemedicine, cloud-based EHR software, and payer administration, racking up $390 million in the first month of the year alone.  Health Catalyst, a rising star in the data warehousing space, took in $41 million worth of venture capital, while cloud-based Kareo medical office systems received $29.5 million from its investors.  Telemedicine provider MDLive saw $23.6 million fill its coffers, and HIPAA-compliant text messaging platform TigerText came in close behind with $21 million.

In Q1 of 2014, the average deal size increased from $10.1 million to $13.1 million, with payer administration services and analytics among the most popular opportunities for investors.  Telemedicine, care coordination, and alternative health tools also took in respectable investments, ranging from $50 million to $61 million in the first three months of the year.