Investment in digital therapy over 9 billion yuan, how is star capital be invested?

Judging whether an industry has a prospect, the trend of the capital market is undoubtedly an important indicator. Because of this, the red fire of digital therapy in recent years is an excellent proof. Although there are still many problems in this early industry that need to be resolved, from the perspective of the capital market, it has indeed taken off.

However, digital therapy also has many segments, and their prospects may not be the same. What do investors think about this? The arterial network organized this.

More than 127 financing of more than 9 billion yuan in 5 years, digital therapy flies

According to arterial orange data, from July 31, 2017 to July 31, 2022, a total of 127 domestic first -level markets had investment and financing incidents in the field of digital therapy, which belonged to 63 companies.

In terms of total financing, in addition to the specific amount of financing, there are also many financing events describing the amount of financing in the form of "tens of millions", "millions", "hundreds of millions", and we uniformly follow "10 million" and "1 million". "100 million" calculate.

In addition, 34 investment and financing incidents did not clearly disclose the specific amount, and we were not calculated. However, as the proportion of these investment and financing incidents in all investment and financing events reached one -third, the amount was actually quite considerable.

According to this conservative calculation method, digital therapy has raised a total of RMB 5.788 billion and US $ 492 million since 2017. The two were added, and the total financing amount reached RMB 9.085.2 billion. In addition, the median amount of financing, including these 93 calculations is 30 million yuan.

Time distribution of investment and financing events

Judging from the time distribution of these investment and financing incidents, in the top two in 2021 and 2017, there were 31 and 27 investment financing events. This is basically consistent with the important node of the development of digital therapy: In 2017, PEAR THERAPEUTICs prescribed digital therapy passed FDA approval and caused widespread attention globally. 2021 is a year when digital therapy has attracted great attention. It is called the "first year" of domestic digital therapy.

However, several active capital representatives in the field of digital therapy admit that the early investment was not specially invested in digital therapy, and more similar to "inadvertently inserting willows and shades." Although investors heard digital therapy at the time, they had a relatively good understanding and understanding. Digital therapy really received attention because of the epidemic, investors began to pay attention to media reports and some products for approval information, and began to make corresponding layouts.

Although it was temporarily ranked third in 2018 with 22 investment financing incidents, it was only three more than in 2022. Considering that there is still nearly half a year in 2022, it should not be difficult to surpass the investment and financing level in 2018 in 2022.

The main business distribution of investment and financing incidents

According to the main businesses of these financing companies, the top three most watched are endocrine and metabolic chronic diseases, mental illness, behavior and cognitive disorders, and digital therapy platform services.

The main business and time distribution of investment and financing incidents

Endocrinology and metabolic chronic diseases including diabetes and kidney disease have always been a major category of digital therapy. Especially after the surplus heat of the "Hundred Sugar Wars", it is not surprising that the peak period of becoming the financing of such digital therapy enterprises in 2017-2018 is not surprising-during this period, capital has shot 16 times in this field, accounting for 49 years in two years, 49 times in two years As much as 30 %.

From 2020 to 2021, another investment peak in the field ushered in this field. However, during this period, most of the investment in this field was the mid -and -late round of the previous investment peak. It is worth mentioning that in addition to diabetes, more chronic diseases are also concerned about capital. For example, chronic kidney disease digital therapy companies have completed early financing during this period.

The second -ranked mental illness, behavior, and cognitive obstacles are another popular track of digital therapy. The treatment of such diseases is not good, or there is no medicine at all, and the industry also hopes that digital therapy can provide better treatment effects. Especially since 2021, the track has received capital attention. From only one and a half years in 2021, the capital has shot 13 times in this field, exceeding the total number of financing (12 times) of the previous four years.

However, a total of 25 financing in this field is the early round of financing, showing that this field still needs to be developed.

As an emerging track, digital therapy has many places that need to be improved in China, such as clinical services and channel promotion. After realizing the huge potential of this field, many platform companies, especially Internet medical companies, have also begun to switch between digital therapy platform services. Since 2017, there are 16 investment and financing of digital therapy platform services, ranking third in business classification.

In addition, digital therapy that specializes in mental health is actually related to mental illness, behavior, and cognitive impairment. It does not rule out that it has evolved into the possibility of mental illness, behavior and cognitive disorders, or sleep. Statistics, there are 11 financing in the field of psychological health, and the number is quite considerable.

We also found in statistics that some emerging digital therapy types have gradually received capital attention in the past two years. For example, orthopedics, ophthalmology, skin and tumor digital therapy, it did not start to get attention until 2020 and introduced investment. This shows that with the gradual maturity of technology and the gradually deepening understanding of digital therapy, more diseases are gradually trying to incorporate digital therapy. It is expected that more types of digital therapy may gradually enter our vision in the future. Investment and financing incident active capital TOP3

Statistics, a total of 176 institutions have shot in the financing of digital therapy companies. On average, one company can attract the favor of nearly 3 institutions. The fieryness in this field can be seen. Among them, Jingwei Venture Capital, Changling Capital, Yuansheng Venture Capital, and Yuanyi Capital have performed well in the field of digital therapy.

Psychological diseases and chronic diseases are heated, and investment logic is different

Judging from the statistics of investment and financing, the digital therapy of chronic disease management and spiritual category is obviously very popular. But this may not be enough to explain the true intention of investors -some well -known institutions said in communication with the arterial network that their investment is considered from the perspective of digital medical care, not digital therapy. Although the underlying logic is connected, it is indeed unintentional. Therefore, we also communicated with several investors who are more active in this field.

Song still expressed that after the managing director of Yuanyi Capital, after the general direction of digital therapy layout, Yuanyi Capital basically invested in two logic:

First of all, you need to carefully choose the disease, including considering the overall incidence of the disease and the market size that can be derived, whether there is a clinical treatment path and quantitative assessment method for formation of consensus. Priority chooses to have clear pain points in the entire process of disease treatment, and digital and intelligent technologies can achieve significant efficiency improvement diseases.

Secondly, she believes that she needs to clarify the timing of entering the market. "For example, the heart bracket has a strong change in the value pattern of the cardiovascular industry. Then, the digital therapy in the cardiovascular field is ushered in a better period of development; The listing of preparations has entered a stage of rapid development. The digital therapy of the related disease efficiency assessment class is also the object of our focus. "Song still explained.

Following these investment logic and combining the actual situation of the domestic medical industry, Yuanyi Capital gradually gathered investment in two directions: one is the disease management and digital therapy of the diseased diseases to help doctors and patients objectively understand the treatment and management methods of diseases and management. , Master the treatment process of the disease, clarify the clinical output of different stages; the second is to improve the disease treatment through the methods of nervousness and psychological psychology of specific diseases, improve the treatment of diseases through empirical physical therapy or behavioral learning methods.

Changling Capital's investment in digital therapy is the same as that, but there are slight differences when choosing the entry point. Jiang Xiaodong, a partner of Changling Capital Management, said that Changling Capital has been looking for the standardization and availability of health management and intervention, and digital therapy has also entered the field of vision.

The wide range of mental psychology is the original direction of Changling Capital's selection, such as cognitive system diseases. The effects of traditional therapies in these fields are not ideal. Digital therapy can achieve long -term management and continuous intervention of these diseases and diseases, thereby slowing the progress of the disease, thereby allowing patients to continue to benefit.

After the initial investment made a certain progress, after drawing experience, Changling Capital began to expand the investment direction of digital therapy, and gradually moved closer to long -term slow diseases from the areas of traditional drugs or therapy, such as chronic kidney disease. However, the essence of the entire logic has not changed, and it still follows the way of slowing the progress of disease through disease management to benefit patients.

"If you do not add management, chronic kidney disease will eventually transform into uremia and need long -term dialysis treatment. This is not only very painful for patients and families, but also cause tremendous economic pressure. In terms of, the entire medical system will also cause a huge burden. Alzheimer's dementia is actually very similar. In essence, the prevention and management of chronic diseases can be used to slow down the development of the disease. "Jiang Xiaodong added.

In addition, there are also some capital to follow the logic of vertical specialty layout -Liu Xiao, executive director of Yuansheng Venture Capital, said in the field of digital therapy in the field of digital therapy in accordance with vertical logic in the field of digital therapy. It has invested in digital therapy companies related to brain science. This is because the clinical value of digital therapy products related to mental and neurological diseases is reflected in the treatment and the diagnosis, and the imagination is large.

Digital therapy, the core is "therapy", not "digital"

In the form of entity, digital therapy is a software. After passing the approval of medical equipment, it was converted into part of SAMD (medical device software). This belongs to the category of computer development. Regardless of the underlying logic, technical process, or technical path, the demand for development software and development SAMD is actually completely the same.

Because of this, after digital therapy has gradually paid attention to people, many cross -industry companies have begun to explore to cut into the medical and health field through digital therapy, such as Internet and IT communication industries.

This is not uncommon -the core team of digital therapy pioneer HAPPIFY Health is actually the development team of Windows with the classic game "Spider Cards". The domestic game industry has also begun to enter the digital therapy industry, and has taken the approval of medical equipment. Investors generally believe that this trend may not be a bad thing for early industries, but it is necessary to focus on the essence of medical care, that is, focusing on "therapy", not "numbers".

According to Liu Xiao's personal experience, it admits that many companies have not understood the characteristics of the medical and health industry before, and the products and business models are not mature enough. But he also said that over time, the overall situation in 2022 has improved significantly in 2021.

For a large number of digital therapy startups, he also gave his suggestions from the perspective of investors.

First of all, you need to choose a disease selection, whether there is enough market size, whether it is large enough to commercialize. At the same time, the positioning and possible business models in the medical system need to be clear. "It is difficult to directly 2C in isolation, is it cooperating with doctors, pharmaceutical companies or equipment companies? What is the positioning of the company in the entire ecology is critical." He said.

Secondly, a certain threshold is needed. Digital therapy requires exact clinical value. This means that companies should have corresponding clinical trials or real world research. In addition, it also needs to solve sufficient clinical pain points in order to allow doctors to be willing to promote it to patients.

"Some second categories seem to be obtained without clinical clinical, but we are very concerned about the existence of clinical evidence and will encourage the invested enterprises to do clinical clinical. Is there a threshold for the product? No clinical data is not the only sign that judges whether there is clinical value. Some digital therapies may not be clinically clinical, but the principle is verified by a large number of real worlds. For example, cognitive behavior therapy has a history of many years. Prove that it is effective, we recognize the effectiveness of the product based on this digital therapy. "

Finally, whether the business model is feasible. Liu Xiao believes that although there are many business models, the most important customers at present are still doctors. Although doctors do not pay for this, with the help of doctors and patients' natural trust, they can achieve the most efficient promotion. At the same time, in the product research and development and clinical stage, digital therapy also requires doctors' cooperation.

"It is difficult to use a lot of funds to promote marketing like large enterprises. This is not realistic in the short term. After the development and growth, they can have a direct service with patients, but early through doctors to serve patients may be more efficient. "Liu Xiao added.

Song still said that digital therapy is the digitalization of medical professional services: "Then you need to respect the attributes and characteristics of medical professional services. Professional services have strong individualization characteristics. Digital therapy as a digital abstraction for medical professional services, must be derived from medical practice This requires the team to have a deep understanding of medical practice, in -depth understanding of the industrial structure, academic characteristics, and regional characteristics of the disease type, and abstract products and systems in the process of serving doctors and patients. "

"The team of digital therapy should also have the compound capabilities of the service industry chain, including commercial collaboration and doctor -patient operation capabilities, multiple relevant service patients on the value chain, create incremental value and transform the value to commercial." She added supplements road.

Jiang Xiaodong believes that some startups have deviations about digital therapy, and more attention has been focused on digital tools. Its product is more like a tool for doctors to manage patients and cannot prove its treatment effect. Therefore, although it is also displayed in the form of software, the core of the product and digital therapy is different.

"Digital therapy is not the same as the logic of Internet products. You ca n’t throw a thing to come out to iterate quickly. I think this is not good -this is not a management software, but a serious treatment of diseases. Effective and efficient results. "

Based on this, Jiang Xiaodong believes that digital therapy needs to prove its effectiveness: one is based on traditional clinical trials; the other is the result of real world research. The former is essentially a controllable small -scale test, and the latter is further, which is generated by a large number of customers in the process of use and management.

"Whether it is clinical trial or based on real -world research, it requires a long accumulation, not as easy as expected. Several companies we invest in have a lot of data used in real worlds. Use in users. These data will feed the iterative development of products to make it more perfect. "

"Digital therapy is not a story or a concept or a literally looking at it with digital medical or Internet medical treatment. It is effective. "He concluded.

Commercialization and clinical need to be improved, policy promotes future expectations

In addition to start -ups in the field of digital therapy, more and more investors are also paying attention to this field. However, as a large area of ​​innovation, digital therapy is obviously not mature enough, and there are still places that need to be improved in terms of regulations, effects, payment, etc. Liu Xiao mentioned in the exchange that a large amount of capital influx into digital therapy in the short term caused the market to show some signs of foam.

"This bubble mainly affects valuation. I personally think that the valuation of some digital therapy companies is too high. Get the certificate is indeed a node that can support the enterprise to a certain valuation. But after exceeding this valuation, investors are investors, investors It will pay more attention to the business implementation ability of the enterprise. Lack of this ability, even if you get more certificates, 5 or 10 will not have greater help. Some companies that run faster in the industry have reached the proved business The node of the ability to cheer up is the ability to test another level of the team. "He added. He believes that digital therapy is still at a very early stage. Although the industry seems to be hot and there are some good attempts to commercialize, the success of commercialization is too early, the time of obtaining the license is short, and the income scale and market penetration rate also have more room for improvement.

Therefore, Liu Xiao believes that digital therapy needs to return to the origin of medical treatment, clarify the red line thinking, and first prove clinical value through clinical trials or real world studies. Only on this basis can we talk about market space and prove business value. These two points still need to be paid attention to the industry.

Song still puts forward a similar point of view, that is, the current large -scale business model is in the process of preliminary verification and conversion of the market: "Whether it is a hospital or a medicine enterprise, they have a complete and scientific decision -making chain. All the relevant person in the decision -making chain of the decision chain They all need to be aware of the value of digital doctor -patient services. This process requires time to accumulate. "

In terms of regulatory regulations, the current regulatory regulations have met the current needs, and in the future, the development of the industry can be further developed. In addition, she also advocates that the industry should not over -speculate the concept, but should be pragmatic in medical practice to create the value and output of doctors and patients.

Jiang Xiaodong said that digital therapy still has challenges in payment, but this needs to prove its effect and efficiency through evidence. If digital therapy can help patients with chronic diseases delaying the course of the disease, and the cost of helping medical insurance savings through sanitary economics proof, the payment party can naturally accept payment of it, and it is not impossible to include the purchase in the future.

"I firmly believe that as long as the digital therapy has excellent effects and efficiency, it is impossible to have no good business model." Jiang Xiaodong added.

At the same time, the medical efficiency will be paid more and more attention in the generosity of medical insurance insistence on control. In this regard, digital therapy with innate advantages has hopes to usher in a huge thrust, provided that the digital therapy truly combines clinical pain points, and proves that it has clear advantages in efficiency and effect through evidence.

"I think we have the opportunity to usher in the reconstruction of the value chain of the medical system. The direct thrust comes from the medical insurance control policy, such as a series of policies such as the" DRG/DIP three -year action plan ". . This will greatly accelerate the implementation of digital technology including digital therapy in the medical field. "

"I think the biggest imagination space for digital therapy companies lies in the data precipitated in its business process. So far, the data sharing cost of the medical industry is extremely high and it is too difficult to achieve. Real -time and online clinical data centered on patients, its potential value is inestimable. "

"In fact, we have seen many doctors who actively embrace digital technologies, including digital therapy. Once this trend is formed, it will not turn back, and the speed will become faster and faster." Liu Xiao expressed cautiously and optimizing the industry. Expectation.

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