Healthcare AI deals break records
[CB Insights] In the State of AI 2021 report, healthcare AI stole the show, leading among industries with a record $12.2B in funding across 500+ deals.
M&A in the healthcare AI space also hit a record in 2021 after smashing the previous year’s high by 125%. Healthcare corporations are feeling more pressure to augment healthcare practices with AI — or risk being left behind.
Medical device incumbent Stryker, for instance, acquired ISU monitoring startup Gauss Surgical in September, while radiology company RadNet just snapped up machine learning-based imaging startup Quantib in January.
Acquisition isn’t the only exit strategy for startups. A record number of healthcare AI companies went public in 2021, including drug discovery unicorns Exscientia and Recursion.
The big takeaway — healthcare AI isn’t just a distant fever dream of Silicon Valley. It’s happening here and now.
It was a record year for AI with $66B+ in funding, a surge in M&A activity, and a 5x increase in unicorn births
2021 was a year of unprecedented AI private market activity. In the State of AI 2021 Report, we dig into global investment trends such as:
A new global funding record — funding doubled compared to 2020
The sectors drawing record numbers of $100M+ mega-rounds – including companies raising billion-dollar rounds
Record number of new unicorn births and the regions with the most AI unicorns today
AI companies with $1B+ exit valuations
The private equity and asset/investment management groups doubling down on AI investments