Why is NOW the best time to invest in medtech?
Even before the arrival of Covid-19 shook the world, a number of global trends were pointing towards the growth of the digital health sector.
Whichever description you choose — be it agetech or medtech, healthtech, remote monitoring or digital health — the past few years have seen a rapid rise in enthusiasm for, and investing in, all areas that relate to the adoption of new technologies in healthcare.
A number of factors have converged to explain this rise in popularity. In developed markets, we have demographic trends shifting us towards an aging population while at the same time, a lack of willingness on the part of citizens to pay more for healthcare via general taxation. Public healthcare budgets are squeezed and technology provides the opportunity not only for efficiency and cost savings but also, in many cases, for improved patient care.
A recent article published by Longevity.Technology, outlines how PCL Health is changing the way older people’s health can be monitored and managed at home — and why we are on a mission to bring these opportunties to more people all over the world. A 2018 AARP survey already found that 87% of US adults over 65 wanted to ‘age in place’. The demands of the global pandemic for self-isolation and social distancing and the increased risks of Covid — 19 to seniors have no doubt increased this figure still further.
As for political impetus — in addition to the vast costs to the state of managing the pandemic, the UK already spends nearly 10% of its GDP on healthcare and 55% of the NHS budget is spent on the over 85s — no doubt even more so since Covid-19 which has heavily impacted on older age groups. Until vaccination becomes more widespread, and perhaps even after that, we still need to keep monitoring people’s healthcare to protect both individuals and healthcare staff. Looking at the long-terms trends, the previously predicted 48.8% per annum growth of the remote patient monitoring market is probably a vast underestimate.
Patient-centred care is what we all deserve and it has become a key driver not just for policymakers but also for commercial healthcare providers as they understand that most of us would prefer to be at the heart of decision making about our own bodies.
How are investors responding to the growing medtech marketplace?
If we look at the enterprise health and wellness tech sector as a whole, according to data assembled by Pitchbook, the industry ended 2020 on a high. The $3.2 billion in venture funding raised marked the largest quarterly figure of the last five years, and brought the year’s total VC funding for the sector to $8.3 billion — up nearly 70% year-over-year. And the size of the enterprise healthtech industry is projected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2025, according to Pitchbook’s latest Emerging Tech Research report. It is likely that the venture capital ecosystem will be an important incubator for tech that can help mitigate the impacts of future pandemics and that governments and NGOs will prioritise this in their forward planning.
Looking more specifically at crowdfunding, according to Crowdcube data using the search ‘healthtech and healthcare’ and excluding preemptions, the number of healthtech & healthcare pitches funded in 2020 was double that of 2019 — a 100% increase from 14 to 28. And alongside all that, it needs to be taken into account that 2019 had already shown a 75% increase from 2018.
By amount raised, funds secured on Crowdcube for healthcare in 2020 were 257% higher than in 2019 and there were 182% more investors. In February this year, we took a dose of our own medicine and ourselves closed our own seed round on Crowdcube raising close to £400,000 from nearly 350 investors.
We know that healthcare has now become the global priority. We know that we are more familiar with — and more reliant on — technology for every part of our lives than ever before. Solutions that use new technologies to improve our health and wellbeing are becoming no longer just desirable but essential. Investors appear to agree.
What concrete steps are next on the PCL Health roadmap towards helping driving patient-centred and connected care?
- We are building a partnership with Homerton University Hospital NHS Trust to trial our technology in the NHS
- We have been accepted as an official supplier to the Crown Commercial Services (CCS) Framework
- PCL was a supplier for a paid UCL project running a Covid-19 clinical trial in Senegal, Africa
- We are continuing to develop our secure, scaleable, interoperable Connected care platform and to refine our proprietary apps and integrations with additional devices including Fitbit and Apple watch.
Want to learn more about PCL Health? Find us on Twitter, Linked in and Facebook or check out our Investors page if you’re interested in supporting our future growth and being part of our journey.
