VCs Chase Niche Health Bets

Funding flows into AI, stem cells and IP-driven startups as investors move beyond traditional healthcare

- Rwit Ghosh & Jessica Jani

Startups building hardware to rewire brain chemistry or developing stem cell therapies for people going blind—those are the sort of niche healthtech firms early-stage investors are scouting for after years of mostly betting on general healthcare-related companies.

Half of the top 10 venture capital investments in healthcare startups since 2020 were in PharmEasy, an online marketplace for medicines and diagnostics services, data from Venture Intelligence show. But in the previous 18 months, VC investments have also flowed into companies like Innovaccer, Neuberg Diagnostics, and Qure.ai.

Innovaccer, which raised $275 million in January from investors including Kaiser Permanente, Capital Group, Banner Health, and Microsoft's venture arm M12, offers artificial intelligence-powered data analytics solutions to healthcare providers, public health systems, and the life sciences industry.

Neuberg Diagnostics raised $109 million in January from Kotak Strategic Situations India Fund II, which is managed by Kotak Alternate Asset Managers Ltd. The Chennai-based company is a diagnostic service provider with operations across India, the UAE, South Africa and the US.

Qure.ai, using AI to automate interpretation of radiology exams for early detection of lung cancer, tuberculosis, and strokes, raised $65 million in May last year from Lightspeed Ventures, Kae Capital, 360 One, and others.