After peaking in 2021, venture capital investing in Oregon biotech, medical device and digital health companies returned to pre-pandemic levels last year.
All told, there were 25 deals valued at $73 million, according to data gathered from Pitchbook. That’s down from 31 deals and $145 million in 2021 and closer to the $78 million in deals completed in 2019.
Boulder Care, which provides virtual medication-assisted therapy for substance use disorders, took home the single largest investment of 2022 among health care-related companies, with a $36 million Series B round. Investors were also attracted to Lazarus 3D, an Albany-based startup that makes realistic-looking organs to allow surgeons to practice surgery. Lazarus raised a $6 million seed equity round.
"I think a lot of investors are focused on shoring up and stabilizing their current investments versus making new ones and I think that's related to all of the interest rate uncertainty and volatility going on," said Dan Snyder, founder and CEO of The Playbook, which supports customer development for life science ventures, and a longtime member of the Portland bioscience community.
"My sense is there is still plenty of cash and capital out there, but investors are looking at what should the price of capital be," Snyder said.
Globally, digital health funding reached $4.6 billion in the third quarter last year, its lowest total since Q1 of 2019, marking the third straight quarter of at least a 30% decline, according to CBInsights.
RockHealth, which also noted a decline, surmises that 2022 was a “downhill ride” for the sector, one that “signals the end of a macro funding cycle centered around the Covid-19-era investment boom.”
