Health care companies from the Midwest brought in more than $1 billion in new equity investments during the first half of 2016, according to the BioEnterprise Midwest Healthcare Growth Capital Report.
Of that total, $143 million (spread over 19 deals) came from St. Louis. That’s the best first half for health care startups in St. Louis for the last five years in terms of both investment dollars and deal flow.
Just Chicago ($260 million over 20 deals) and Minneapolis ($226 million over 57 deals) reported better figures in the Midwest.
The data is a bit misleading — in terms of what it means for the local startup community — as it includes a $69.5 million raise from Centene in February. That money was used to acquire a stake in a data analytics firm incorporated in the Cayman Islands from RGA International Corp.
The Centene raise excluded, it was still an up first half ($74 million spread over 18 deals) when compared with the same time period last year ($27.1 million over six deals).
Leading the charge were two separate raises from EndoStim that totaled $36 million led by Switzerland investor Endeavour Vision.
Pulse Therapeutics, the medical device startup that has developed magnet-based technology that can dissolve blood clots, which could improve treatment of strokes and other diseases, raised$10 million from a group of investors led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm NanoDimension. St. Louis-based FTL Capital and Cultivation Capital also participated in the round.
PierianDx, a St. Louis-based biotech startup, raised$9.25 million from a group of investors led by New York-based Health Catalyst Capital Management.
Other notable raises included Adarza BioSystems’ $4.87 million round, Confluence Life Sciences $4.83 million funding and Radialogica’s $2.85 million round.
“Midwest healthcare continues to perform at record levels, and as with other parts of the country, the software and services sector is clearly driving the surge,” said Aram Nerpouni, president and CEO of BioEnterprise.
In the Midwest, more than half of venture capital invested came in the health care IT and software sectors, with 27 percent in biotech and pharmaceutical companies and 22 percent in medical device ventures.
