Pandemic-induced extended lockdowns have forced people to seek alternative ways to access health services, triggering a boom in the use of technology and innovation in healthcare provision worldwide.
As a direct result, investments in global health technology startups have skyrocketed since the onset of the pandemic, increasing 280% from 2016 levels to hit $51.3 billion in 2021, according to recent data from London & Partners (LP) and Dealroom.co.
With investments starting to pour in this year, that trend is likely to continue, especially as uncertainty around the pandemic’s end continues.
MeMed, an Israeli firm that develops diagnostic solutions to monitor the body’s immune system, announced Monday (Jan. 10) that it had raised $93 million to accelerate the commercialization of its host immune-response product portfolio.
The round brings the company’s total funding to over $200 million, an amount raised from heavyweight investors including the U.S. Department of Defense and the European Union (EU) Commission.
Commenting on the raise, Eran Eden, MeMed’s co-founder and CEO, said the new investment will enable MeMed to expand operations to the U.S., where the company recently received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its MeMed BV test, a technology that helps healthcare providers distinguish between bacterial and viral infections using the body’s immune response.
“We are grateful to our investors for their support and will leverage the funds, the recent FDA clearance, and our growing network of partnerships to provide broad patient access to our technology, as well as expand our product portfolio of pioneering host response solutions,” Eden added.
Another technology developed by the Haifa-based firm, the MeMed COVID-19 Severity test, has also been cleared for use in Europe, helping healthcare practitioners predict severe outcomes in COVID-19 patients.
Read more: Digital Health Startups Making Major Moves Across the UK, Europe and Africa
Read also: mPharma Raises $35M to Expand Healthcare Access in Africa
As a further sign of increasing global investment in the sector, one of Africa’s leading digital health firms, mPharma, secured $35 million last week to expand healthcare access across the African region. To date, the firm has raised over $50 million, including a $17 million Series C round led by the CDC Group, the U.K.’s development finance institution.
Founded in 2013, the Ghana-based health tech startup recently acquired a controlling stake (55%) in Uganda’s Vine Pharmacy, marking its second entry into the East African region, after purchasing Kenya’s Haltons Pharmacy for $5 million in 2019.
See also: UK Leads EU in Driving Global Growth In HealthTech Sector
When it comes to Europe, the United Kingdom is the leading country driving growth in the healthtech sector, and is home to the second-highest number of healthtech companies that have received funding globally since 2016 (1,090), behind the United States (6,551).
The country was also the largest recipient of venture capital (VC) investment in Europe as of November 2021 ($3.8 billion), ranking third globally behind the U.S. ($31.9 billion) and China ($4.1 billion).
According to the LP and Dealroom.co. report, U.K. healthtech growth is concentrated mainly in London’s Golden Triangle, an unofficial grouping of leading research universities in the southeast region of England, including Cambridge and Oxford.
That zone alone houses 508 healthtech startups that together received 65% of the U.K.’s total investment in the sector 2021.
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