Digital health startups raised $4 billion across 110 deals in Q1 2026, per Rock Health — up $1 billion from the same period last year.
Twelve mega-deals absorbed 59% of all capital deployed this quarter, one of the highest concentrations Rock Health has ever tracked, just a few percentage points behind Q1 2021’s 62% and Q4 2021’s 61%. Average deal size hit $36.7 million, also the highest since that period.
The headliners: Whoop closed a $575 million Series G at a $10.1 billion valuation as it weighs an IPO. OpenEvidence, the “ChatGPT for doctors,” pulled $250 million in its third round in under a year. Verily raised $300 million for its precision health AI platform as it untangles from Google’s ownership structure.
Rock Health retired its “AI deal” tracking category this quarter. Their rationale: AI is now “table stakes” in digital health. The report noted that the broader market “remains bullish on what AI is worth,” with AI investment climbing and frontier labs raising at eye-watering valuations, even as questions about foundation model costs linger.
This isn’t a broad-based market recovery. Fewer deals, bigger checks. It’s capital concentrating at the top: total deal count dropped from 122 to 110 year-over-year, and 98 of those deals split just 41% of capital.
Diana Kowalski