Global health and biotech startups have smashed all previous records in 2021. Healthtech startups have raised a record $63B, a 1.6x increase vs. 2020. Biotech startups raised 1.1x 2020’s funding total, at $41B.
Combined enterprise value of healthtech and biotech companies founded since 1990 is now $4T. Healthtech companies globally have reached a combined value of $1.7T, a 4.5x increase since 2017. Biotech companies are valued at $2T, a 4.1x increase since 2017.
There are now 202 healthtech unicorns, 70 of which passed the billion dollar mark in 2021 alone. Also, 2021 created 28 new biotech unicorns, for a cumulative number of 192 unicorns.
Particularly noteworthy is that these new all-time high figures follow an unprecedented pandemic-driven surge for Health and Biotech in 2020, an industry showing relentless, resilient growth.
⌚️ Doctors say it’s time Apple Watch ticked all the health boxes. A research paper published in May corroborated what others have found: “wearables are lagging behind their potential”, with “little evidence” they “bring about sustained behaviour change”.
🧾 Germany extends test phase for ePrescriptions. A postponed launch and technical hurdles have hampered the testing phase of digital prescriptions in Germany, and the country now enters a prolonged piloting phase at the start of 2022.
🧍♀️ Withings’ Body Scan smart scale measures segmented body composition, nerve activity. The company said the scale, which includes a tempered glass platform and a retractable handle, will use a low-level electrical signal to measure body composition, including the composition of individual body parts like the torso, arms and legs.
Latest healthtech and biotech deals
The largest from last week:
🇺🇸 Korro Bio, RNA editing company focused on the discovery and development of novel genetic medicines, raised $116M in Series B.
🇨🇳 Xuanzhu Biopharm, drug research and development company for antitumor, anti-endocrine and metabolic diseases, and anti-infection, raised $96M in Series B.
🇫🇷 DNA Script, pioneer in Enzymatic DNA Synthesis (EDS) for on-demand DNA printing, completed a $200M Series C.
Other notable deals from around the globe:
🇺🇸 Curi Bio, a stem cell-focused drug discovery platform, raised $10M in Series A.
🇺🇸 Good Therapeutics raised $8M in Series B to advance its therapeutic proteins designed to operate only where they are needed in the body.
🇮🇪 MedAll, online platform for medical training, raised £2.5M in Seed.
We've added a new tab on company profiles to show details of the patents that the company has received. You can filter for this data in the Advanced Filters > Patents tab. For instance, CRISPR Therapeutics has a patent in “Universal Donor Cells”, an in vitro method for generating a universal donor cell.
Job opportunities
COMPASS Pathways is hiring for 16 positions, including Full Stack Software Engineer, Clinical Project Manager, Principal Research Scientist, and more.
AccuRx is hiring for 38 positions for IT Manager, Product Designer, Finance Analyst, and more.
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