Duncan Greenberg’s Post

“Diagnostics are the GPS of healthcare. Use them and watch health increase and costs plummet. Best description”! By Lena Chaihorsky, ALVA10

this is a major step in the adoption of the collective tapping into benefits of preventative health and wellness. many will follow. in big data concerning health AI definetely can help with diagnostics.

Small but mighty. Fewer, focused bets. Digital health funding is not dead yet. Rock Health is out with the Q3 market update - encouraging signs for sure While total funding and deal count are down, the average check size is steady. (Hence the fewer, focused bets comment) Like venture funding, M&A activity was low in Q3 2024. We should also expect continued consolidation in the space: "...Acquiring a startup with a built-out product and sales, potentially at a depressed price, can be more affordable than building a new product and customer base from scratch..." DarioHealth expanded mental health and MSK capabilities through acquisition. As CEO Erez Raphael puts it "The digital health market is transforming from single-solution companies that want to ‘do it all’ solo to scalable, combined offerings that drive efficiency for both vendors and clients" Point solutions. Do they have a future? What do you think? https://lnkd.in/g_JUbfuK

I encourage my network to read this investment brief from a16z Bio + Health around Function Health ‘s $50M + A round. Why did a16z lead this round, in this market? This is a productization of #diagnostic information and #AI / # ML that is deeply relevant for the diagnostics industry and anyone trying to fundmanentally shift the healthcare system. Ironic that our healthcare system has failed to prioritize diagnosis and prevention for so long that it is now a crisis-mode sick-care system that… patients will now pay for their diagnostic information to avoid. And of course there is so much more that diagnostics can do once a healthcare intervention is being presented to a patient for any reason: is this the right drug for me? Is this the right procedure for me? Is my disease changing, how do I get ahead of it? Diagnostics are the GPS of healthcare. Use them and watch health increase and costs plummet. Cc: Khosrow Shotorbani Clinical Lab 2.0

A few years ago, we at Andreessen Horowitz wrote an article predicting that a consumer health company could become the biggest company in the world. More recently, we’ve argued that building new companies with magical consumer experiences that inspire behavior change is the most powerful way to extend our lifespans. Today, we're thrilled to announce that we’ve led a $53M Series A in Function Health, a company that embodies the vision and excitement we had when writing those theses. The one piece we underestimated is the current state of latent demand among consumers for a new approach to healthcare and longevity. Since launching a beta in 2023, Function has amassed nearly 50k paying members with little marketing. Function aims to integrate all of your health data with all of the world’s health knowledge to best inform what actions you can take to live 100 healthy years. Function helps you fully understand what’s happening in your body, initially through the most powerful data source in healthcare: blood. We couldn’t be more excited to back Mark Hyman, MD, Jonathan Swerdlin, Pranitha Patil, Seth Weisfeld, and Mike Nemke, and to invest alongside Ari Emanuel, Blake Griffin, Jay Shetty, Joel Embiid, Jeff Dean, Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, Zac Efron, Kevin Hart, Colin Kapernick, Casey Means, MD, Julie Klapstein, Zack Werner, Draft Ventures, G9 Ventures, K5 Ventures, Wisdom VC, 53 Stations, Able Partners, Cade Ventures, Continuum Health Ventures, Fearless Ventures, Pari Passu Venture Partners, Spacecadet, Wisdom Ventures, and so many more. Vijay Pande, PhD, Zach Cohen, Annie Collins, Bryan Kim

The Consumer Health sector is booming! A $1.8 trillion global market, driven by an aging population, viral wellness trends, and the increasing demand for better health management. Over 1,200 niche startups have emerged in this space in just the past two years! We’ve curated an exclusive report featuring 100+ high-growth Consumer Health startups, from bootstrapped innovators to Series B, making waves in mental health, personalized wellness, and wellness tech. 👀 Sneak peek at the categories: ▪ Chronic Disease Management: Miga, Carda Health ▪ Health Stores & E-Pharmacies: Farmako: Medicines in 30 minutes, HyugaLife ▪ Men’s Health & Wellness: MANUAL, Bold Care ▪ Mental Health & Wellbeing: Allminds, Daybreak Health ▪ Nutrition & Lifestyle: Nourish, Flex AI ▪ Telemedicine & Virtual Care: ZoomDoc Health, DrOnline Healthcare ▪ Wellness & Wearable Technology: Pvolve, OxeFit ▪ Women’s Health & Reproductive Care: Oova, Midi Health Download the list now—easily accessible Google sheet with startup details & founders. https://bit.ly/47hATA1

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“investors are making fewer, more focused bets” Rock Health’s Q3 Digital Health Market Update shows that the number of deals fell slightly in Q3 compared to the first half of 2024, though the average size of the deal remained the same. Perhaps this is related to uncertainty with the upcoming U.S. election, but perhaps it’s also reflecting that investors are starting to look even more critically at who they invest their dollars with. As we continue to see a lot of new startups spin up in digital health, what questions would I ask myself when decided who to bet on? 1. Do they have appropriate clinicians represented in leadership? 2. Do they have qualified scientists to drive an evidence generation strategy? 3. Do they have any evidence of efficacy, effectiveness, and safety? 4. Is there demonstrable evidence that they’ve vetted their go to market strategy with relevant stakeholders (i.e., target users or patients, providers, etc.) If you were an investor in digital health, what questions would you be asking? Who would you be betting on right now?

2024 proved to be an interesting transition year for digital health companies as the sector went through, hopefully (hopefully!), the tail end of the post Covid19 funding roller coaster. On the bright side $10.4bil worth of funding flowed into the space, while this number is far lower than the funding raised by digital health companies during covid it is higher that the pre-covid funding. So are we finally stepping off the roller coaster in 2025 with new funding norms being set? It was interesting to read that despite the large number of later stage digital health companies around a bulk of this $10.1bil funding went to early stage companies. This makes me scratch my head since very few later stage digital health companies have managed to scale leading to a failure to attract further investment. So is the investment market betting that new start-ups will be able to some how figure out the path-to-market / commercialisation / profitably scale / distribution problem that has hamstrung their later stage peers? On the positive side data from the article points to both a growing interest in consumers using digital health products, and evidence shows 'older' users are more willing to use digital interfaces to support their healthcare needs. Hopefully the growing interest from the 'C' side of the B2B2C / B2C equation helps to drive revenue in the market. I also suspect 2025 will more firmly set the scene for AI in the healthcare space, and I believe the role that market gate-keepers like Epic in the US will become more apparent in shaping what AI healthcare solutions are able to scale in the big markets like the US.

It is such a crazy time to be building a digital health company -- on the one hand, there is SO much excitement about the space, so many opportunities for technology to make improvements, and so many exceptional people jumping in heads first. And yet, the market is pretty dismal for funding, exits and outcomes. In my view, survival is key right now -- and may be one of the best ways to make it through this storm. Take a look at my thought in Forbes on how to survive the great digital health shake out: #healthcare #digitalhealth #healthtech https://lnkd.in/e5V6yN-W