Lukewarm Health IT Sector Sets Record for Global Healthcare IPO Fundraising in 2024

Not long ago, VCBeat released the “2024 Global Healthcare Investment and Financing Analysis Report,” which provides a detailed, multi-dimensional overview of the global landscape and subtle shifts in healthcare innovation investment and financing in 2024 by analyzing over 2,000 deals worldwide that year and integrating global investment and financing data from the past decade.

An analysis of the report reveals that the scale of digital health transactions has continued to shrink in recent years. Nevertheless, informatization, as the foundation of digital health, remains highly valued by all stakeholders, ranking fourth among the top keywords in 2024. Globally, 12 informatization companies completed their initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2024, placing this sector among the top three in terms of the number of IPOs.

Incorporating the report’s insights, this article also provides an in-depth analysis of the investment and financing trends in healthcare informatization in 2024, aiming to clarify the market dynamics of the past year and offer a forward-looking perspective.

According to the report data, there were a total of 139 financing events for informatization enterprises in the global primary market in 2024. Among these, foreign informatization enterprises accounted for the vast majority, with 123 financing events. Of these,Specific funding amounts were disclosed for 89 financing deals. After converting all these disclosed amounts into US dollars, the cumulative funding totaled approximately $1.971 billion.

Incomplete Statistics on Major Overseas Financing Events in Healthcare IT in 2024

Among these,A total of four financing events exceeded $100 million in funding amount., namely Redesign Health ($175 million), Tower Health ($142 million), Zing Health ($140 million), and Remodel Health ($100 million), together with Ladder Technologies ($90 million) ranking fifth, constituted the “Big Five” of global health informatics financing in 2024. Subsequent financing deals trailed significantly behind these five companies in terms of amount raised.

It is particularly worth mentioning that,These large-scale financing events all occurred in the second half of 2024, seemingly signaling a resurgence in the overseas digital health investment and financing market.。

Incomplete Statistics of Overseas Financing Events in Healthcare IT in 2024, by Funding Round

Categorized by funding round, excluding the 37 financing events with undisclosed rounds,The highest number of financing events occurred in Series A rounds, with a total of 29; followed by Seed and Series B rounds, with 18 and 12 events, respectively.. All other rounds recorded single-digit financing events.

An examination of the evolution of financing rounds reveals that informatization enterprises have faced significant growth challenges in recent years. In 2024, there were 12 Series B financing deals, which dropped sharply to just four at Series C, and dwindled to a single deal at Series E. Both the Series C and Series E financings involved companies that had progressed from earlier rounds completed in previous years. Given that the number of early-stage financing events in prior years was substantially higher than in 2024, it is evident that for informatization enterprises to evolve from early-stage to late-stage development is a considerable challenge.

Incomplete Statistics of Major Domestic Financing Events in Medical Informatics in 2024

In 2024, there were 16 financing events related to informatization in China. Among them, 11 events disclosed specific financing amounts, with a cumulative total of approximately RMB 508.5 million after conversion. Of these, four financing events each reached an amount of RMB 100 million.

Incomplete Statistics of Domestic Investment and Financing Events in Healthcare IT in 2024, by Funding Round

In terms of the distribution across financing rounds,The domestic health IT sector is at a much earlier stage, with six angel-round financing deals accounting for nearly half of all funding events—a share that far outpaces other stages.。

In contrast to the relative coolness of the primary market, healthcare informatics demonstrated relatively strong performance in IPOs in 2024.Among the 162 healthcare companies that completed their IPOs, 12 were health IT firms, ranking third highest among all categories.。

Especially on June 8, focusing on providing SaaS solutions for revenue cycle management to healthcare service providers, optimizing the medical insurance reimbursement processes for healthcare institutions and achieving process simplification.U.S. healthcare IT company Waystar lists on Nasdaq, raising up to $967.5 million. This not only marks the first resurgence of IPOs in the U.S. digital health sector since 2023 but also represents the largest IPO in the digital health space since 2022.。

Even when viewed within the broader healthcare sector, this IPO set a record for the largest capital raise in the healthcare industry in 2024., leaving an indelible mark in the annals of history.

2024 Overseas IPOs in Healthcare IT

In 2024, there were seven IPOs of healthcare IT companies in the U.S. stock market. As previously mentioned, Waystar’s IPO was the largest in terms of capital raised. However, aside from this case, the fundraising amounts for the other IPOs were not substantial, and could even be described as rather “meager.”

Interestingly, Firefly Neuroscience, VSee Health, and DIH Holding all achieved public listing through reverse mergers or acquisitions of existing publicly traded companies. This also highlights the challenges facing initial public offerings (IPOs) in the digital health sector in recent years; even when companies do go public, they often struggle to attract investor interest, forcing many to pursue reverse mergers as an alternative path to going public.

Domestic IT enterprises were quite subdued during the first half of 2024, butAs the second half of the year begins, particularly toward year-end, Chinese IT enterprises will increasingly concentrate their IPO efforts on the Hong Kong stock market.。

2024 Domestic IPOs in Healthcare IT

Information technology companies are concentrating their efforts on listing in the Hong Kong stock market primarily for several reasons. First is policy support: on April 19, 2024, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) released five measures to enhance capital market cooperation with Hong Kong. These measures stated that support would be provided for eligible leading mainland enterprises in various industries to list and raise capital in Hong Kong. On October 18, the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong (SFC) and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) jointly announced optimizations to the timetable for reviewing new listing applications. The optimizations cover two categories: listing applications that fully comply with regulatory requirements, and listing applications from eligible A-share companies seeking to list in Hong Kong.

Under the optimized approval process, applicants and their sponsors are expected to provide satisfactory responses to comments raised by regulatory authorities within a total of approximately 60 business days. Subject to approval from the Listing Committee and other relevant departments or regulatory bodies, the application process is anticipated to be completed within the six-month validity period of the application.

For A-share companies submitting applications for listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, if their expected market capitalization is at least HK$10 billion and, supported by legal opinions, it is confirmed that the company has complied in all material respects with laws and regulations related to its A-share listing during the two complete fiscal years preceding the submission of the new listing application, then the new listing application may be reviewed under an expedited approval timetable.

Under the fast-track approval timeline, if an eligible A-share listed company submits a fully compliant application, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEX) will each issue only one round of regulatory comments. In such cases, the regulatory assessment by each regulator will be completed within no more than 30 business days.

The optimized approval process is undoubtedly highly attractive to enterprises.

Secondly, the narrowing of A-share IPO channels has forced companies to seek alternative paths.

Since the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) announced a phased tightening of the IPO pace in August 2023, IPO access has become increasingly stringent, with a marked slowdown in the acceptance of IPO applications and listing committee reviews. This trend continued into 2024, prompting these companies to pursue listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

On October 8, Taimei Medical Technology, billed as the “first SaaS stock in the pharmaceutical industry,” officially went public, raising net proceeds of $260 million.。

Subsequently, as the year drew to a closeOn December 30, iFlytek Healthcare, the “first stock of large medical AI models,” and Health Road, the “pioneer of internet healthcare,” were listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on the same day.. Within a single day, the number of IPOs in China’s healthcare informatics sector nearly doubled.

Among them, iFlytek Healthcare became the only A-share company this year to complete its filing with the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) for a spin-off listing in Hong Kong. Through this IPO, it raised HK$507 million, marking the largest IPO in the healthcare informatics sector in 2024. This amount, equivalent to over US$65 million, ranked fourth among domestic IPOs in China in 2024.

Based on IPO events in the domestic and international healthcare IT sectors in 2024, integrating business operations with AI has clearly emerged as a key trend for achieving successful public listings. Notably, Waystar and iFlytek Healthcare, which set IPO records in their respective international and domestic markets, both possess distinct AI backgrounds. Furthermore, internet healthcare remains a prominent theme in healthcare IT IPOs.

Overall, although health IT represents a relatively “foundational” segment within the digital health sector, its scope and connotations continue to evolve with the times. Driven by business needs, many emerging digital health companies still leverage health IT solutions to establish connections with hospitals or patients, gradually expanding their core operations on this basis. Consequently, despite years of market fluctuations, health IT has managed to maintain its position in recent years, even amid a generally subdued climate in the digital health industry.

In the future, we believe that the informatization sector, with its continuously evolving scope, will remain a key domain in digital healthcare.