Digital health funding has slowed compared with the massive investment seen last year. But some investors say the downturn could have a positive side for the market.
“It’s hard to look at 2021 – which I think in hindsight will turn out to be anomalous – and feel like people were making smart bets, that they were being disciplined, that they were being thoughtful about valuations. I think we’re going to see a lot of cautionary tales out of last year,” Robert Garber, partner at 7wireVentures, said during a discussion at the Frontiers Health Global Hybrid Conference.
Though a down market is painful for startup leaders trying to raise capital, Tanja Dowe, CEO of the Debiopharm Innovation Fund, said it can push entrepreneurs to hone in on the value they’re creating, Mobi Health News reports.
“These times really make you focus heavily on the road to profitability, and not about maximizing the intake of capital,” she said. “[…] We get maybe less capital, maybe a lower valuation, but we get to that next value inflection point. So I think that it’s not entirely negative. It’s positive, at least from the quality of startups that survived this market.” Read more.
