Fitness-tracking startup Fitbit (see disclosure) was the big winner in health tech funding last month, but it wasn’t the only consumer health startup to get a boost.
According to Startup Health, consumer health-related companies raised more than $70 million in August, making it one of the best months for consumer health since the start of the year. (Companies obviously fall into various sectors, so Fitbit is actually counted in the sensor category in the chart below.) MyFitnessPal similarly raised a significant round last month and other smaller consumer health startups also attracted investor interest.
In total, the New York-based startup academy said 50 U.S.-based startups raised $242 million in August, which marks just about a 1.5 percent increase over the same period last year.
Here’s a brief overview of investment activity in health technology in August, from Startup Health:
- While support from Silicon Valley investors is growing, the report points out that strategic investors are the leaders in later-stage rounds. Qualcomm participated in Fitbit’s last round and Intel is an investor in CareCloud.
- Sensors and wearable technology continue to attract strong interest from investors — since the start of the year, sensor technology has consistently ranked within the top five most funded sub-sectors each month. And, just this week, Jawbone announced that it had raised more than $100 million in new funds for its wearable devices.
- MyFitnessPal’s $18 million Series A round (which was its first round of outside funding since launching in 2005) and Change Healthcare’s $15 million Series D round were also among the top 5 deals of the month.
- It’s worth noting that CareCloud’s $29 million Series B round actually came in two tranches. The company initially said it raised $20 million in June and then added another $9 million in August.
Disclosure: Fitbit is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of GigaOM. Om Malik, founder of GigaOM, is also a venture partner at True.
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