The biggest digital health VC investors since 2020

The 2020s is the decade when venture capital investors took notice of digital health. 

Funding for digital health peaked in 2021, when more than $20 billion was invested in the sector, according to new data from market research firm Pitchbook. The last few years have been down from that high with funding totaling $10.3 billion in 2022 and $6 billion in 2023. Despite the decline, there is still a lot of interest from the venture capital community in the sector. 

Related: New York surpasses Silicon Valley as digital health hub

The second half of 2024 saw reproductive health-focused startup Flo Health, diabetes care startup Glooko, women’s health and family care startup Maven and mental health-focused startups Spring Health and Headway all receive more than $100 million in funding rounds. Aaron DeGagne, senior analyst at Pitchbook, said the variety of these companies shows that venture capital isn’t just banking on one specific area of healthcare or technology.

While the list of venture capital firms investing in digital health has shrunk since 2021, the most active investors are continuing to write checks. Pitchbook compiled a list of the top venture capital firms in terms of deal frequency from 2020 through Dec. 3, 2024. The top half of the list shows companies that are still investing even as the industry has pulled back from the earlier hype.

The top five dealmakers since 2020 are Gaingels (86 deals), which invests in companies focused on underrepresented populations; Alumni Ventures (66 deals), which focuses on early-stage startups; General Catalyst (48 deals), which has led some of the biggest funding deals of the decade; Startup Health (47 deals), an incubator based in New York; and tied for fifth place are City Light Capital and Flare Capital Partners (with 37 deals each). 

“The names at the top tend to participate in early-stage deals, so they’re doing higher numbers [of deals] generally with higher check sizes,” DeGagne said. 

See the full list of the leading VC firms

One exception is General Catalyst, which has invested in later rounds through companies such as Commure, Transcarent and Hippocratic AI. In October, the company announced it had raised $8 billion, with more than $1 billion of that total slated for healthcare-focused companies. 

“Healthcare remains the largest sector of focus for General Catalyst,” said Chris Bischoff, managing director for the firm. “We’re still very early in this journey, so there's no end of opportunities. We think the change will accelerate from here, partly because we now have the tools and the technologies to take on challenges we didn't have before.” 

Some of the most notable investors outside the top five include Optum Ventures, which just missed the cut at 36 deals; Google’s GV venture arm along with venture capital heavyweights Andreessen Horowitz and Khosla Ventures, all with 27 deals apiece; Kaiser Permanente’s venture arm with 18 deals and insurer Cigna’s venture arm with 15 deals. 

Pitchbook’s list shows that unlike other VC-funded sectors, healthcare isn’t limited to Silicon Valley. Some of the most active investors are from Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. 

“Since it’s a relatively newer vertical and it has grown a lot over the last five years, it doesn't have as many established regions or hot spots,” DeGagne said.   

In October, a report from Silicon Valley Bank found that the epicenter of digital health funding has shifted from Silicon Valley to the New York City area, including Long Island. Companies in New York received $2.3 billion in venture-backed health tech investments through the first eight months of 2024 compared with $2.1 billion for San Francisco Bay Area-based companies.