International Digital Health. Disrupting Bowels. AI + Health Fund
Global Health
While we tend to focus on the US, digital health is happening all around the world. We took a look at the funding trends outside of the US and some of the most well-funded companies in different countries. The full post can be found here.
Digital health can look very different from one country to another. This can be due to different data-sharing regulations, lack of existing IT infrastructure, different population health afflictions, and a host of other reasons. Needless to say, movements are being made around the world. Some examples:
India has been the most active digital health center outside of the US, with nearly 150 deals since 2013.
Drone companies Matternet and Zipline are conducting medical supply deliveries in other countries to avoid issues with roads.
China corporates are particularly involved in healthcare. Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent have their own initiatives (Baidu chatbots, Ali Health’s consumer endeavours, etc.) and have also invested in nearly 20 deals in both Asia and the US.
Telemedicine companies play important roles in areas which have particularly high patient:doctor ratios and areas where access to primary care is an issue.
Outside of developed countries, many platforms are going mobile-first or mobile only. For example, Totohealth in Kenya provides health reminders focusing on maternal health via SMS.
Some well-funded ideas happen around the world, like patient booking platforms (Guahao in China, Practo in India, DocDoc in Russia).
Here’s a deal search on our platform for digital health in China. Take a look at any country you’re interested in to see what digital health looks like around the globe.
Data Dump
Our version of an April Fool’s joke looks like this. There are some healthcare companies disrupting the bowel industry, a space we expect to see liquidity.
