Last year, New York Innovation report shows a sharp drop in women s health funding health care funding in the New York metropolitan area showed a sharp decline to $3.9 billion among 141 companies from $9 billion among 182 companies in 2021, a new report shows. Biotech companies have shown the most interest, while investment in women’s health seems to have fallen off the cliff.
The annual report — New York Health Innovation Report – was published on Wednesday by Digital Health New York (DHNY), a network of executives, founders, investors, payers and providers in the New York metropolitan area. Now in its sixth year, the report analyzes trends in healthcare innovation and startup investment in New York.
New York biotech startups raised $858 million in 2022, up from nearly $1.2 billion in 2021. The biotech company that won the most investment last year was Calliope, who intervened 236 million dollars.
Meanwhile, women’s health attracted just $78 million in 2022, compared to $540 million in 2021. Biotech startups account for 22% of total funding in 2022, a stark contrast to women’s health, which accounts for just 2%.
After biotech, the top sectors receiving funding in 2022 were care delivery and coordination ($702 million), analytics and insights ($507 million), and mental health ($429 million). Most categories saw a decrease in funding from the previous year, with the exception of provider activation. However, several categories in this year’s report were not mentioned in last year’s report, including care delivery and coordination and medical technology.
Bunny Ellerin, co-founder and CEO of DHNY, isn’t sure why women’s health received so little investment in 2022. She said it’s possible that many women’s health companies received significant funding in 2021, while in 2022 d. more small startups are emerging with lower amounts of funding.
“I don’t have a good answer for that, to be honest,” Ellerin said in an interview. “But I don’t think that means women’s health is going to take the stage at all.” In the general public, people are talking about menopause now and home STD testing for women. The conversation is there, it’s happening. I think we’re going to start to see even newer types of companies forming… What may have happened is that in 2021, there were some really large amounts of funding going into women’s health companies. In 2022, I definitely saw a bunch of small startups that by definition have a lot less funding.”
However, one women’s health company won significant funding in 2022. Maven Clinic, a women’s and family health virtual clinic, has received $90 million in late-stage funding from General Catalyst, CVS Health Ventures and others. It had the tenth largest amount of funding among New York startups in 2022.
Across all companies, and apart from Kallyope, which took first place for raising capital overall, the other two main funding recipients were Insightful and Ro. Insightfula digital health company dealing with heart disease raised $223 million while Ro a direct-to-consumer telehealth company, raised $150 million.
Two of the above companies raised money earlier in the year, but as the year progressed, New York startups faced an increasingly difficult fundraising environment.
In the first quarter of 2022, $1.3 billion was invested in 50 deals. By the fourth quarter, funding was down to $620 million across 23 deals.
The report also showed that investors are more open to putting money in early-stage startups in 2022 than in 2021. Pre-seed, seed and Series A funding accounted for 39% of all funding in 2022, compared to 15% in 2021.
“2021 was an absolutely landmark year. Everywhere, not just in New York, there was funding, funding, funding,” Ellerin said. “2022 was a reset year. But through that, we still see the drive of entrepreneurs and founders to want to start companies. So, in fact, early stage funding really jumped in 2022.”
Amid a looming recession and news of widespread layoffs in certain industries, including health care, a survey included in the report gave off a sense of foreboding.
The survey of healthcare CEOs, entrepreneurs, investors, payers and providers found that about 47% said they were “concerned” or “very concerned” about the economic outlook and its potential effect on business in 2023. Additionally, 24% have said that funding will be their biggest business challenge in the coming year. More than half believe the market will not recover for late-stage fundraising until 2024.
When asked which New York startup they expect to emerge in 2023, 22% of stakeholders said Capsule15% said. Cityblock Health15% said. Komodo Health15% said Ro, 9% said Cedar and 9% said Maven Clinic.New York Innovation Report Shows Sharp Drop in Women’s Health Funding; Biotech startups gain interest – MedCity News
Stakeholders also shared the areas they see as the most underfunded, with 32% listing health equity. Women’s health ranked lowest in this area, representing only 9% of respondents.
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