StartUp Health Insights Report Shows More than Half of Digital Health Investment Benefits the Growing 50+ Market

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Our research shows that funding advancing areas impacting the 50+ market is growing. There's incredible opportunity for digital health innovation to serve baby boomers, who make up almost half the US population. - Unity Stoakes, StartUp Health

Boston, MA and New York, NY (PRWEB) May 09, 2014

StartUp Health, a global startup platform accelerating innovation in health and wellness, presented new research at the 3rd AARP Health Innovation@50+ LivePitch in Boston, showing that more than half of digital health investment since 2010 is focused around nine areas that benefit the 50+ market. The new research report from StartUp Health and AARP, “The Top 12 Venture Capital Firms Funding the 50+ Market,” tracks digital health investing between 2010 and 2013, and reveals that preventative medicine is a growing focus of early stage investment dollars and that care navigation, vital sign monitoring and aging with vitality are the most funded markets. The report can be downloaded for free at http://www.startuphealth.com/aarp.

Preventative Medicine Growing Focus of 50+ Market

Preventative medicine is a growing focus among the 50+ market, leading to increased opportunity across the nine areas of digital health and wellness innovation.

> Of these nine areas, there are four that have arisen as a new focus area for the 50+ market in the past three years—behavioral and emotional health, social engagement, diet and nutrition and physical fitness.
> The five other segments—medical management, aging with vitality, vital sign monitoring, emergency detection and response and navigating the healthcare system— continue to be a traditional area of importance to the 50+ market.

More Than Half of Digital Health Investment Benefits Growing 50+ Market

> Funding in the nine areas of opportunity that impact the 50+ market represents 53% of all digital health investments and that number continues to grow.
> Funding in these nine areas rose 59% from $93 million in 2012 to $1.48 billion in 2013.
Seed and Series A deals comprised 50% of the 50+ market deals from 2010-2013.

Most Funded Categories

The findings also show that from 2010-2013, the 50+ areas that received the greatest total amount of early stage funding were Care Navigation, Vital Sign Monitoring and Aging with Vitality:
> Care Navigation received $2.5 billion
> Vital Sign Monitoring received $1.95 billion
> Aging with Vitality received $1.27 billion

Substantial funding in these markets is attributed to an emphasis on preventative medicine, empowering patients to own their care and the changing healthcare regulatory landscape.

To date, Vital Sign Monitoring, Care Navigation and Social Engagement have the greatest number of deals among the 50+ market opportunities.
> 103 Social Engagement deals
> 100 Care Navigation deals
> 75 Vital Sign Monitoring deals

Interest in these markets is primarily attributed to large market opportunities and clearly defined business models.

“There are more than 10,000 Americans who enter the 50+ demographic daily and collectively, they spend $3.5 trillion a year,” said Unity Stoakes, co-founder and President of StartUp Health. “Our current research shows that funding advancing areas that impact the 50+ market is growing. There is incredible opportunity for digital health innovation to serve baby boomers, who make up almost half of the US population.”

Funding Rising Sharply

StartUp Health digital health funding research also provides insights into the larger digital health funding market, showing that since 2010, digital health and wellness investment has grown from $1.05 billion to $2.79 billion in 2013. The San Francisco Bay area and the Northeast lead digital health funding activity with more than 41% of total funding from 2010-2013. Though the number of software-only digital health companies more than quadrupled, funding in devices and wearables grew 102% from 2012 to 2013, accounting for 32% of all digital health investment.

Top 12 Investors Since 2010

The most active venture capital funds investing in the nine impact areas for the 50+ market since 2010 include:
> Founders Fund
> General Catalyst Partners
> HLM Venture Partners
> Intel Capital
> Khosla Ventures
> Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers
> Mayfield Fund
> Milestone Venture Partners
> Mohr Davidow
> Sandbox Industries
> Social Capital Partnership
> West Health Investment Fund

About StartUp Health
Startup Health, a global startup platform accelerating innovation in health and wellness, represents a new model for helping entrepreneurs succeed in the health sector. StartUp Health is on a mission to help 1,000 health startups to reimagine and transform healthcare by 2020. The StartUp Health platform includes the StartUp Health Academy, the StartUp Health Network and a growing community of Healthcare Transformers. StartUp Health was founded by health tech entrepreneurs Steven Krein and Unity Stoakes and is chaired by former Time Warner CEO Jerry Levin. The organization’s investors includes Mark Cuban, Esther Dyson, Roger Ehrenberg, Brad Feld, Richard Forman, Jason Finger, Linda Holliday, Jon Kaplan, Howard Krein, MD, PhD, Jon Miller, Jeff Stewart and Wayne Kimmel. Learn more and apply at startuphealth.com and follow @startuphealth.

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