The total funding deployed in healthtech in Asia continued its momentum in 2019 and closed at US$5 billion across 340 deals, according to a new study by Galen Growth.
In its 2019 Year End Asia Pacific HealthTech Investment Landscape report, Galen Growth found that the Asia-Pacific region managed to maintain its strong performance by recording another $1 billion of investments in healthtech companies in the fourth quarter alone.
With a full-year total of $5 billion, the sector beat projections made in October 2019, showing its ability to weather the region’s geopolitical and domestic headwinds.
One of the breakout markets in 2019 was Southeast Asia, where investment broke previous records and doubled to $266 million, a growth of 2.25 times.
Although Singapore maintained its deal volume share leadership position with 54% of the share, this figure shrunk since 2018 as neighbouring countries — such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Myanmar — expanded their ecosystem and attractiveness.
In Southeast Asia, while the total early stage deal volume share is shrinking, growth stage deals continue to gain momentum, now representing 37.5% of all shares in 2019 and up 85% as compared to 2018.
The average funding value in the region increased by 2.5 times to $5.6 million as compared to 2018.
Healthtech investment activity in China dropped by 37% to $3.4 billion, projected to have been caused by weakening investor appetite borne by political headwinds and a domestic economic slowdown.
The other leading performer was India, which broke all its funding records for healthtech by closing at $723 million. Although there were fewer deals — with only 65% executed (down 39% vs 2018), total funding grew to an all-time high — closing 33% above 2018 values.
“A greater number of enterprise business leaders confirmed that healthtech is a high priority, whilst investors’ likelihood of investing in HealthTech in the region has grown further,” said Julien de Salaberry, CEO and founder of Galen Growth.
The company has partnered with Asia’s most active healthtech companies through its Open Innovation Council, which is dedicated to bringing together promising startups with leading organisations to scale proven solutions.
