India's healthtech deal value nearly doubled to $355m in H1

Investments in the wellness category ballooned to $155m.

India has received $355m in healthtech investments over H1, which is about double the figure recorded in H1 2018, according to a Galen Growth report.

The figure is said to have been boosted in Q2, after India’s 2019 general election. But despite the bigger investment value in H1, the number of deals have dipped to 27 as compared to 58 in the H1 2018. The cumulative deal value since 2016 to YTD totalled to $1.57b.

“Fueled by a number of noteworthy late stage deals, India is on course for another record breaking year,” the report stated.

Meanwhile in Q2, healthtech funding value closed at $281m which almost snatched the title of being India’s biggest funding quarter. India saw the largest investment value in Q3 2018 at $299m.

Furthermore, the quarterly figure is a rebound from the two previous weak quarters in value, which could be attributed to market uncertainty associated to the general election and the “angel tax” concerns.

The number of early stage deals make up 25% of the Q2 figure, which crashed 67% YoY. On the other hand, growth stage investments jumped 65% YoY, accounting for 38% of the total number of deals in the same period. Around 25% are comprised of late stage rounds.

The average deal value in Q2 accelerated to $17.6m, up 7x from the $2.5m in Q2 2018. Galen Growth noted that it is “potentially indicating a trend towards bigger tickets”. The quarter had two notable deals exceeding $70m, namely, wellness One-stop platform cure.fit and online marketplace 1mg.

Amongst healthtech categories, wellness received the most investments at $151m during H1, followed by online marketplace category at $133m.