Nobody cares about MedTech service providers like Zapyrus does. That’s why we dedicated this Q3 financial report to the leaders in the MedTech service provider industry that’s helping to ensure critical, lifesaving medical technologies are not just great ideas from founders, but are being successfully approved and commercially reach the end patients. Everyone has a role to play in our vertical to do right by patients and to Zapyrus, the service providers are the unsung heroes.
This report will dive deep into the myth of “lack of funding in MedTech” in 2024 in order to help leaders in MedTech make well informed decisions heading into 2025. To ensure that we are all aligned on what type of data we are looking at, we need to define the parameters of this report.
*Zapyrus users will be able to access the exact companies and contacts using the key links below. Look out for the lightning bolt emoji (⚡) as an indicator.
Since 2023, MedTech leaders around the globe have been making remarks about how “there is a lack of funding in MedTech”. This statement can be misleading and is an easy and tempting explanation to explain away a bad year. We need to first benchmark this statement against a control set, in this case we will use COVID-19 funding volumes. From this reference point, we do agree that 2023 marked a low period for MedTech with respect to the COVID cliff which Zapyrus has documented and presented in our FY2023 report. However, this year our data shows quite the opposite trend. We see a surge in funding quarter-over-quarter where this third quarter logged the highest amount of funding injected into MedTech OEMs since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Leaders who are encountering lost deals due to a lack of funding are either operating on bad data, missing market visibility in MedTech, or are misinformed about the current state of the industry. Today, through this report we will dispel the myth that MedTech this year is experiencing a funding drought and prove that there is 88% more funding year-to-date in 2024 than the entirety of 2023. Looking at the totality, there is $34 billion of funding YTD in 2024 vs $18 billion in all of 2023. If you are a MedTech service provider and are experiencing a drought in your sales pipeline, this report will serve as your guide to realign your strategies and help you to consider looking at the right companies at the right time in order to better achieve your business targets.
Additionally, MedTech OEMs that are experiencing challenges in raising investment funds are most likely being out-pitched and out-positioned by their competitors. This financial report highlights where funding is being received by therapeutic area, region, technology type, stage of company development, and size of companies.
In this report, we will uncover the truth in MedTech for 2024 through actionable data and reveal hidden leading indicators that are only revealed through clean and actionable insights in MedTech.
Let’s get it started!
[1] Funding breakdown between Q1 to Q3 of 2024
[1.1] M&A activity in Q3
[2] What can the stages of funding tell us about future growth opportunities for MedTech service providers in 2025?
[3] What can funding distribution by MedTech company size tell us about where service providers should focus their efforts and time?
[4] Funding by technology type and therapeutic area
[5] How can MedTech service providers better plan for growth by region?
[6] Overall health of the MedTech market YTD
[6.1] Funding by company maturity
[6.2] FDA approvals
[6.3] Top 10 most funded MedTech companies in Q3
[6.4] Top 3 MedTech companies with the most device recalls
[7] Future outlook
Excitement is the choice of word when it comes to describing the future of MedTech as we close out 2024 and head into 2025. The medical technology vertical experienced its largest financial quarter yet this Q3 since the cash injection at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022. This time around however, the investments are a lot less monochromatic towards a single technology like portable diagnostic testing for COVID-19. Financing in Q3 of 2024 has incredible distribution amongst SaMD technologies, connected devices, and women’s health technologies. These investments are brand new to their respective categories and we are seeing this for the first time ever.
In order to put the numbers into perspective, we need to look at the financial investment trends between Q1 to Q3 of 2024 as shown in Figure 1 below. We can observe a 58% increase in funding for this quarter than Q2 and furthermore, 26% more than Q1 of 2024. This is critical because this data describes the opposite trend to what leaders in the MedTech service provider space have been perpetuating and that is “there is a lack of funding in MedTech this year”. To that I would challenge, maybe you are looking in the wrong place or at the wrong set of companies.
The historical data from prior years have shown that preclinical and clinical spending by MedTech companies occurs between 6-12 months after receipt of funds. Furthermore, clinical output by way of product approvals occurs 12-24 months after the initial receipt of investment funds.
Service provider implications: MedTech service providers in MedTech should begin to analyze their current book of business against the funded MedTech OEMs shown in Figure 1 below as these funds will drive revenue growth for preclinical, design & development, clinical CROs, and CDMO services in the first half of 2025.
Figure 1. MedTech funding volume in 2024 between Q1 to Q3.
⚡ Zapyrus users can gain access to all of these funded MedTech companies by clicking here.
Q3 2024 marks the biggest surge in financing in MedTech since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic with total investments sitting at $13.9 billion distributed amongst 792 MedTech companies. The breakdown of this capital will be discussed in the following chapters below, but some notable investments were made to MedTech companies in machine learning/AI such as Mendaera, Inc.. Madeira received $73 million Series B funding led by Threshold Ventures, with participation from investors including Lux Capital, PFM Health Sciences, and Fred Moll. Another example of a large invest was towards PictorLabs who raised $30 Million in Series B Funding to Accelerate AI-Powered Virtual Staining Technology led by global software investor Insight Partners, with continued participation from M Ventures, the venture capital arm of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which had previously led PictorLabs' Series A round. Thirdly, BillionToOne, a next-generation molecular diagnostics company, secured a $140 million non-dilutive financing agreement with Oberland Capital Management. These large amounts of funding were a common theme in Q3 this year and MedTech service providers that are offering solutions around preclinical/clinical stages should take a serious crack at strategic ways to get a seat at the table with these capital rich MedTech OEMs.
It’s important to understand beyond just pure dollar amounts but rather go deeper to understand when, what, and why these dollars are being spent in MedTech over the next 3-9 months. For example, Zapyrus data shows that 275 of the MedTech companies that received funding Q3 2024 are planning a clinical study for 2025. MedTech CROs should strategically focus on these high value top 275 companies in order to maximize the end of 2024 year and proactively secure a seat at the bidding table come Q1-Q2 of 2025.
Additionally, we tracked and found that 599 MedTech companies that received funding in 2024 have announced that they are planning to conduct a clinical trial in the next 6-12 months. MedTech service providers that are facing challenges closing deals this year and who are concerned about the start of 2025 should look to specifically target and capture the projects from these 599 MedTech OEMs.
Service provider implications: If done correctly, MedTech design & development firms, CDMOs, regulatory services, reimbursement consultants, and commercial service providers should have a strong runway to open up Q1 of 2025. This is heavily contingent on the fact that they need to proactively plan on how to engage and capture these top 599 high value funded MedTech OEMs.
M&A volume is a great predictor of market health especially in an acquisition heavy market like MedTech where most if not all startups have acquisition as their final destination. Investors of startup MedTech companies look to founders for their “exit strategy”. The topic of a planned exit strategy before a company has even generated revenue is a controversial topic, especially in the healthcare and MedTech space. However, that’s another topic for another blog.
Figure 2. Volume of MedTech M&A between Q1 and Q3 of 2024.
Since the start of Q1 2024, we’ve observed a strong linear increase in M&A activity within the MedTech space, specifically tracking MedTech OEMs. Most of these M&A deals are between large strategic MedTech organizations like J&J and startups/scale up MedTech organizations. The increase in M&A volume suggests great overall health in the MedTech market where strategics are beginning to make post COVID-19 moves to expand their portfolio through acquisitions. A great example of this is the $600 million acquisition of V-Wave by J&J. Interestingly, there seems to be a correlation between large strategic MedTech OEM’s volume of device recalls and their increased M&A and product development activity.
Service provider implications: MedTech service providers should invest some time and resources looking at device recall volumes in predicting future strategic acquisitions by large MedTech OEMs.
From working with hundreds of service providers, we often hear two narratives as it relates to funding rounds in MedTech.
Figure 3. Q3 2024 MedTech funding by stages.
When looking at the stages of funding, a few important outliers emerge. One main outlier is in the startup stage. Startup companies are thriving in Q3 of 2024 with a large total funding of $340 million injected into early stage preclinical and proof-of-concept development work through grant funding. The amount of grant funding volume is up by 30% from Q2 of this year. Regulatory consulting firms, design & development firms, and preclinical testing services should focus their attention on these early stage funding rounds in order to capture opportunities before it’s too late. Funding received at this stage through grants are often quickly spent on hyper focused initiatives in order to unlock the next stage of funding. It’s critical that service providers act with urgency when they see this type of sales trigger.
⚡ Zapyrus users can gain access to all grant funded MedTech companies in Q3 by clicking here.
Series A and Series B funds are indicative of MedTech OEMs seeking preclinical validation, early stage validation studies, IDE studies, and the start of pivotal trials. Series A and Series B funds for Q3 2024 combined for more than $800 million.
Service provider implications: Given that at this stage, clinical trials are being planned, reimbursement strategies are in development and patient recruitment strategies are being implemented, CROs, regulating bodies, CDMOs, and commercial services should pay careful attention to these companies heading into 2025 as they will need support in all of these areas and will be the foundation for stabilizing your business pipeline.
The last outlier of note is the $872 million in funding directed towards Series D round. Understandably, there are fewer companies that receive Series D funding but each round of fund is a larger amount than previous rounds.
Service provider implications: CROs, CDMOs, commercial services, and design & development firms should look to target these companies as they are gearing up for commercialization and product pipeline expansion.
It’s critical to understand how to position your services to each stage of funding and profile of the company as not all medical technologies require as much capital investment to reach the commercial stage like an invasive Class 3 implantable medical device. For example, some MedTech companies may not reach a specific series of funding because the medical technology they are bringing to market is a piece of software that only requires $35 million to get from concept to commercialization. So if you are tracking only specific value of funding and their stages as a signal for sales opportunity, then you are intentionally building blindspots in your go-to-market strategy. Zapyrus users can break this segmentation down further and segment the market by technology type and create actionable triggers on the value and stage of funding by the needs of each type of MedTech company.
The size of a MedTech company can tell us a lot about the maturity of the MedTech OEM. This attribute serves as a supplemental scoring criteria to the previously discussed funding rounds. Companies at a certain size could indicate the stage of their product development. For example, a company with 2 employees would probably not have gone through clinical trials yet. Coupling this with their funding volume, you can start to map out companies that have a small headcount and large amounts of funding will most likely seek outsourcing partners to help them scale their development. We call this the Zapyrus outsourcing score. (More on that in a later blog, I know the teasers don’t stop…)
Figure 4. Q3 2024 MedTech funding by employee size.
Figure 4 above shows us that MedTech companies with more than 1000 employees continue to receive the most amount of funding in Q3 by dollar value. This is unsurprising given that larger capital is needed in order to scale the companies at this size towards further growth. The more interesting data is when we look at companies that are between 11 to 500 employees. Relatively equally distributed amounts of funding is observed between companies that have 11-500 employees despite the demand for increasingly larger amounts of funding as companies become larger.
Service provider implications: What this means for service providers is that early stage small startup companies are receiving a lot of investment support to scale their ideas towards the clinical stages of development. On the other hand, going after projects of medium sized companies may be more stable from the size of the company perspective but from a funding volume, it may result in price negotiation wars as the volume of funding is stretched across a larger number of companies at this size.
The relatively flat trend in funding from companies with 1 to 500 employees suggests a good spread in growth amongst small to medium sized MedTech companies in Q3 of 2024. If planned correctly, service providers going after these companies will find it to be a fruitful start of the year in 2025. Conversely, service providers that are focusing heavily on companies between 501-1000 in employee size may find it difficult to close deals as funding in Q3 is dry. If you are in the 501-1000 employees space, you should consider diversifying your hunting and marketing strategies to capture business opportunities in the range above and below this range.
Figure 5. MedTech funding by employee size between Q1 to Q3 of 2024.
Figure 5 above, shows the funding distribution by quarter within 2024 year-to-date (YTD). We see a massive spike in funding for large MedTech companies (1000+ employees) to more than double in Q3 of 2024 compared to Q1/Q2. At this stage of company development, investors see this as a lower risk bet in order to realize a return in a short period of time. For the Midmarket (101-1000), we see a gradual decrease and leveling off in funding quarter-over-quarter since Q1 of 2024. This can be attributed to companies that are stabilized through healthy initial revenue from their recent commercialization success. We may see a different trend in 2025 as their revenue stabilizes and they begin to seek new avenues to grow their profitability through product pipeline expansion.
The total funding YTD for startup MedTech companies are approximately the same as scale up companies with 51-100 employees. This data suggests a healthy growth for service providers seeking to offer their services to early stage startup companies early in 2025. For some added context, approximately 238 MedTech companies with less than 10 employees received funding in Q3 2024 and 531 companies with less than 10 employees YTD received funding of $1.6 billion.
Lastly, MedTech OEMs between 11-50 employees have a strong runway of cash going into 2025 with a total of $4.8 billion of investments to help support the scaling up of prototype development and launching clinical trials.
Service provider implications: Design & development services, preclinical, and clinical CRO services should focus on strategies at getting ahead of their competition in order to secure an early seat at the table with these well funded MedTech OEMs.
In Zapyrus we strictly define MedTech companies as companies developing novel regulated medical devices, diagnostic instruments, in-vitro diagnostic tests (IVD), and software-as-a-medical devices (SaMD). This ensures that we have the cleanest and the most actionable data in MedTech that leaders in the MedTech industry care about. Figure 6 below shows the distribution of funding towards different medical technology types.
Figure 6. Q3 2024 MedTech funding by medical technology type.
Funded MedTech companies in Q3 2024 are primarily focused on developing medical devices, followed by IVD, and SaMD. SaMD is increasingly receiving financial support along with connected devices. This increase is driven by the rapid growth in the applications of machine learning and large language models as applied to healthcare and medical devices. This rise in SaMD and connected devices has brought in new players to the service provider space such as outsourced software development companies to help bring expertise to this area of MedTech. We should expect further investments into SaMD as we close out 2024 and as SaMD companies begin to be approved in the coming months. With the growth rates that we have seen from the start of 2024, SaMD is projected to soon outpace IVD in as early as Q3 of 2025 due to the scalability of software development and the lower requirement for physical device manufacturing and logistical concerns. It’s critical however, that SaMD companies look to develop their commercial strategy and teams early in order to succeed at the commercial stage.
Figure 7. Q3 2024 Funded MedTech OEMs by therapeutic area of focus. The therapeutic area percentages are greater than 100% due to MedTech companies that received funding are developing multiple products in different therapeutic areas.
Figure 7 above provides critical insight into the impact of SaMD in MedTech this year. Women’s Health funding outpaced Cardiovascular this quarter for the first time in over 10 years. This has massive implications for the future of MedTech as this is an area of research that has historically been neglected in healthcare for both pharmaceutical and MedTech. Due to the increased maturity of machine learning and large language models, SaMD development unlocks therapies that were never before accessible with traditional medical technologies.
Service provider implications: Regulatory consulting firms and CROs should ensure that their offerings are maximizing the SaMD regulatory opportunities and putting out solutions to help SaMD companies mitigate regulatory risks and ensure that their clinical trials will not be rejected by the FDA and other regulating bodies around the globe. Additionally, contract software development firms should focus on building out specialized niches to differentiate value proposition as funding continues to grow in SaMD and connected devices, MedTech leaders will seek vendors that have a clear core expertise in their application niche.
Neurology continues to be strong coming in third place and capturing 22% of the Q3 funding volume this year. Brain-computer interfaces will further push investment dollars into the Neurology segment in future years to come. CROs and CDMOs should continue to invest capabilities in this therapeutic area in order to future proof their revenue growth.
It’s undeniable that within the MedTech vertical, North America, specifically the USA is the primary region in which the bulk of novel medical technology development and investments happen. This quarter’s financial data proves that again, MedTech OEMs headquartered in North America received $13 billion in investments compared to the $699 million in EMEA and an even lower $121 million in APAC.
Figure 8. Q3 2024 funding by geographic regions.
Figure 8 above shows us that North America (NA) eclipsed APAC and EMEA in financial growth in Q3 making up 94% of all of the investments into MedTech OEM companies in Q3 of 2024. MedTech service providers seeking growth in the North American market have a strong runway of business opportunities heading into 2025.
Figure 9. Funding by geographic regions between Q1 and Q3 of 2024.
When we look at the trends between quarters we can further see the health in the NA region where funding in Q3 for NA shot up to $13 billion compared to the $6B in Q2 of 2024 and $11B in Q1. This 117% increase in funding dollars suggests positive growth in the MedTech market and a healthy market as we head into 2025.
Service provider implications: Service providers focusing on growth in NA can expect an increase in business transactions in Q1 of 2025. You need to begin building the relationships with these MedTech companies now in order to be in a higher position when you reach vendor evaluation in 2025. Do you know which companies you should be focusing on for your services?
Although EMEA experienced a rise in funding from Q2, Q3 shows a large funding dip to ~72% of Q2 funding.
Service provider implications: Service providers can expect a slower start in Q1 of 2025 from MedTech companies in the EMEA region compared to NA. However, the total amount of funding in the EMEA region is still overwhelmingly larger than that of 2023. Therefore service providers should still expect a healthy growth in the EMEA region for 2025. Unfortunately, APAC continues to be dominated by MedTech companies manufacturing low risk Class 1 devices and therefore requires less financing dollars to be successful.
Based on Zapyrus MedTech market intelligence data presented above, we can see a healthy trend towards positive MedTech growth in 2025. However, when we look to better understand the health of the MedTech market in greater detail, we need to look at what stage of companies the funds are being directed towards, how the previous quarter activity translates to downstream device approvals, and the overall stability of the top 10 MedTech companies.
Funding distribution by company maturity is a great way to dive deeper into the minds of investors and where the focus of investment dollars are. Figure 10 below shows $11 billion are supporting MedTech companies that have at least one commercialized product on market. This suggests that investors are re-entering the MedTech market in a more cautious way where more money is being spent on companies that have “done it before” vs the brand new companies that are seeking commercial success for the first time.
Service provider implications: Service providers focusing on just pure startup companies are potentially missing out on the majority of opportunities in the market this quarter.
Figure 10. Q3 2024 funding distribution between MedTech OEMs that have a commercialized product in the USA vs not yet having a commercialized product in the USA.
Looking at funding towards MedTech OEMs that have not yet commercialized in the USA, we see $2.6 billion of funding that poured in this Q3. These MedTech OEMs tend to be smaller startup companies that are at the preclinical stage or companies from outside of the USA that are potentially seeking an expansion into the USA.
Service provider implications: Service providers that are focused on this category of early stage companies need to be careful to not waste their time on the majority of the companies that are not funded and therefore will not contribute to revenue growth within 2024 or 2025.
Figure 11 below highlights FDA approval volumes by quarter for 2024 YTD. We see that device approvals have dipped below both Q1 and Q2 of 2024. This is attributed to the increase in clinical studies terminated and delayed clinical trials observed from Q2 2024.
Service provider implications: MedTech CROs should have a strategic focus on delayed or pushed studies in order to help ensure that these clinical studies are successful and result in an FDA device approval.
Figure 11. FDA approval volumes by quarter for 2024 YTD.
Analysis of the top 10 most funded MedTech companies in Q3 2024 show us that Edwards Lifesciences contains the largest active clinical trial pipeline followed by Styker, Zimmer Biomet, and GE Healthcare respectively. Although there are MedTech companies that have larger clinical pipelines than Edwards Lifesciences, these companies are financially well positioned to outsource fractional services to clinical CROs, CDMOs, preclinical testing, and design & development.
Figure 12. Active clinical trial pipeline from the top 10 most funded MedTech companies in Q3 of 2024.
Furthermore, more than 70% of these clinical studies have not yet started recruiting patients and have an anticipated completion date late 2025 or beyond.
Service provider implications: Clinical CROs that want to maximize opportunities in Q1 of 2025 should be focusing on strategic paths towards showcasing the benefits to outsourcing fractional or full clinical trial projects in order to maximize the capital raised by these strategic MedTech OEMs in Q3 2024.
Lastly, we want to take a look into the top companies that were funded in this quarter with the most device recall by volume. We cross examined these companies with their funding volumes and clinical trial pipeline data and an interesting trend emerged. Although too early to be conclusive, we observed that the three companies in the table below are among the top 10 most funded MedTech companies in this quarter with the largest clinical trial pipeline.
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Top 3 Funded Companies with the Most Device Recalls in Q3 |
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GE HealthCare |
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Stryker Corporation |
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Zimmer Biomet |
This suggests that these strategics might have seen these recalls coming and in order to mitigate growth stagnation in 2025 and beyond, they have been increasing their investments into new product development and conducting an increasing amount of clinical trials. The positive correlation between the increase in device recalls and the number of clinical trials in their pipeline will be further studied in the following Q4 report to understand if these trends can help service providers predict focus on strategic growth outcomes in the years to come.
Service provider implications: CROs may be able to use device recalls within the past 2 quarters to one year in order to predict future clinical projects in the upcoming 3-9 months.
The future outlook for MedTech in 2025 is highly positive, fueled by substantial funding growth in 2024. A Q3 surge saw $13.9 billion in investments, focusing on software-as-a-medical device (SaMD), connected devices, and women’s health. SaMD is expected to surpass in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) by mid-2025, driven by advancements in machine learning and scalability. This shift presents opportunities for service providers in preclinical, clinical, and design sectors, as clinical trials and product approvals are expected to increase within the next 6-24 months.
Women’s health and neurology are key therapeutic areas poised for investment growth, with brain-computer interfaces likely to attract more funding. Service providers like regulatory consulting firms and contract research organizations (CROs) are encouraged to build expertise in these emerging fields.
North America remains the dominant region for MedTech investment, accounting for 94% of Q3 funding. This growth trajectory is expected to continue into 2025, offering significant opportunities for service providers, while Europe (EMEA) and the Asia-Pacific (APAC) regions show more moderate growth, with APAC trailing behind.
Investors are focusing more on companies with commercialized products, indicating a cautious approach that favors proven companies. However, early-stage firms face challenges unless adequately funded. FDA approval delays due to clinical trial setbacks provide opportunities for service providers to help navigate regulatory and trial processes. Major players like Edwards Lifesciences, Stryker, and Zimmer Biomet are heavily investing in clinical trials, signaling future growth through strategic outsourcing.
Additionally, mergers and acquisitions are on the rise, with companies like Johnson & Johnson leading expansions, further boosting the market. The diversity in funding, including Series A, B, and D rounds, highlights strong opportunities across company sizes, from startups to larger firms.
Overall, 2025 promises robust growth for MedTech, with service providers well-positioned to benefit from capital influxes, increased clinical activity, and strategic partnerships across the industry.
The myth that has been propagated in MedTech from 2023 and into this year about the lack of funding in MedTech has been busted in this report. Through the careful curation of regulated MedTech OEM data, Zapyrus has shown the true value that has been invested into MedTech over the past three quarters in 2024. We wrote a report based on our actionable data to inform leaders at MedTech service provider businesses of the opportunities and pitfalls to avoid as we close out 2024 and plan for 2025.
The MedTech industry is poised for significant growth through 2025, driven by increased funding, especially in software-as-a-medical-device (SaMD), connected devices, and underserved therapeutic areas like women’s health and neurology. North America remains the leading region for investment, while opportunities for service providers abound in clinical trials, regulatory support, and commercialization. The MedTech market presents a dynamic landscape for service providers to capitalize on emerging trends and drive industry advancement. That’s why service providers in MedTech around the world trust Zapyrus actionable intelligence to help them proactively grow their business and continue to scale.
Zapyrus uses a combination of in-house proprietary machine learning to identify these future development milestones in order to ensure that businesses are making the right connections at the right time to maximize their value towards a MedTech company. Check us out to see how Zapyrus can help fuel your MedTech business in 2025.
Thank you for reading this report and we wish you all the best in 2024!
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