The digital well being world confirmed actual indicators of market traction in the course of the first half of this 12 months, with startups within the area elevating $6.4 billion in enterprise capital funding, in response to a report launched by Rock Well being on Monday.
Digital well being startups’ funding complete in the course of the first half of 2025 is barely greater than the $6.2 billion and $6 billion that these startups raised within the first halves of 2023 and 2024, respectively. This alerts a gradual market that has found out what its new regular appears like following a pandemic-era increase, the report famous.
AI-focused startups captured 62% of all digital well being enterprise funding within the first half of the 12 months, elevating a mean of $34.4 million per spherical — which is an 83% premium over these startups’ non-AI friends, the report mentioned. Most of those AI-first firms made merchandise to enhance scientific workflows, nonclinical administrative duties and knowledge infrastructure.
Of the 11 megadeals — fundraises totaling $100 million or extra — that have been closed by digital well being startups in the course of the first half of 2025, 9 have been raised by AI-focused firms. As an example, scientific documentation startup Abridge raised $250 million in February and one other $300 million in June. Different AI startups together with Innovaccer, Hippocratic AI, Qventus and Truveta all closed rounds bigger than $100 million.
The report famous that suppliers are quickly adopting a few of these instruments, too.
For AI instruments that sort out issues like ambient documentation and medical reference platforms, some hospitals are reporting utilization charges as excessive as 90%, which is a hanging shift given suppliers’ previous resistance to new tech, the report acknowledged. It additionally mentioned that AI startups are incomes suppliers’ belief by delivering merchandise which might be extra intuitive, implementing instruments extra seamlessly into the prevailing tech infrastructure and producing measurable outcomes.
Along with the billions flowing to AI distributors, the primary half of 2025 additionally featured the long-awaited IPOs of Hinge Well being and Omada Well being — two exits that many felt have been overdue, following years of stagnation. The report identified that these firms spent over a decade constructing belief, refining their care fashions and deploying AI to ship scalable care.
The general public debuts of Hinge and Omada may mark the start of a extra mature digital well being market, which can assist reignite investor confidence, in addition to set the stage for future exits and more healthy funding cycles.
Whereas public choices draw headlines, the report famous that almost all digital well being startups are exiting by way of M&A, with 107 such offers within the first half of 2025 — which places the 12 months on tempo to just about double 2024’s complete.
Non-public fairness companies are additionally fueling consolidation by combining legacy healthcare companies with AI-native startups. They’re betting that these roll-ups will allow better effectivity and scale, in response to the report.
Amid the promising exit surroundings and more and more quick tempo of AI adoption, digital well being firms additionally face rising coverage and financial uncertainty, significantly relating to the current passage of the One Massive Stunning Invoice Act. The invoice’s Medicaid work necessities and adjustments to ACA marketplaces may go away thousands and thousands of individuals uninsured, shrinking the addressable market and exacerbating suppliers’ monetary pressure.
To navigate these shifts, Rock Well being inspired digital well being startups to interact early with federal initiatives and attempt to align with priorities like persistent illness and AI in care supply.
Picture: Ta Nu, Getty Photos
