Medtech venture investing trends: Here’s what you need to know

Ask any early-stage medtech or digital health entrepreneur, and they’ll tell you how tough it is. There’s tremendous competition for venture investing, coupled with a pullback by previously traditional investors in this space.

Bill Evans

While venture investment in medtech and digital health has recovered since the financial crisis of a decade ago — setting a record in 2017 — this doesn’t reflect what it’s like for entrepreneurs raising money at that critical transition from seed money to Series A.

The bar for new investments is considerably raised, and funding seekers have to cast their nets more widely for new sources.

To get to the bottom of what’s going on, I reached out to entrepreneurs at this stage, as well as bankers, startup accelerator programs and industry observers. The result is a three-part series:

• Part 1, the present article, looks at what is driving the underlying trends.
• Part 2, coming soon, looks at these trends from the entrepreneur’s perspective.
• Part 3, also coming soon, gives advice from the trenches, to guide entrepreneurs looking to tune up their business plans to be in the best position when Series A comes around.

Get the full story on our sister site Medical Design & Outsourcing.