As digital pathology investment matures , venture capitalists get selective

11 April 2023 – Contribution by Imogen Fitt – Featured in Circle Square Digital Health Trends – March 2023

Investment in the digital pathology market spiked significantly during 2021. This before declining sharply again in 2022. Average funding per round does however remain elevated and has been steered significantly towards more mature vendors.

Funding has been allocated primarily towards three key vendors, PathAI, Paige.ai and Owkin. All are focusing on artificial intelligence for digital pathology. However, seed rounds are still being raised as of 2022 and new entrants to the market are expected to persist.

Investment in DP is now starting to scale.
This is relative to markets like medical imaging AI and AI in drug development. Penetration of digital pathology remains low, in part due to regulation, the fragmented supply chain and limited investment from healthcare providers in modernizing clinical labs so far.

Editorial: Signify Research (UK) tracks the digital pathology market worldwide and is offering a free summary report which can be downloaded from the link below. The full report is planned for release in April Analyst Imogen Fitt reports that the post pandemic period reflected a time of renewed interest and adoption in the market, for both clinical and research use cases Positive developments from both regulatory bodies and key institutions framed digital pathology as a rapidly growing market that had finally started to mature an easy win However, sentiment from investors rapidly shifted as economic and political conditions saw backers pivot strategies to a much more conservative approach in 2022 Consequently, funding reached only 29.0% of the previous year’s total This is expected to continue.

Source: Signify Research