After reaching a peak in 2021 ($44.8 billion), funding in the health tech industry fell off dramatically in 2022 ($23.3 billion). But 2024 showed signs of recovery, according to an analysis by financial management platform Carta.

Looking forward to 2025, we asked health tech leaders to share their thoughts and predictions.

These answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Sofia Guerra, VP, Bessemer Venture Partners

These are tech-enabled clinical delivery businesses that have been around for a while and have real scale, and have used the last two to three years to really prove out their scalability and unit economics. And those businesses are raising very successful large rounds on the growth side.

I’m excited to see how more business-in-a-box type models can take off. We’ve seen it in the therapy side, but the new era of a tech-enabled independent practitioner in other categories, we are going to see a lot more in the coming year.

Keep reading here.—CH

Uber Health is hitting the gas on bringing healthcare to patients.

The nonemergent medical transportation market is rapidly growing, driven by need from older patients as well as patients with disabilities and chronic conditions. In fact, it’s predicted to hit more than $15.6 million by 2028, according to a November report from private equity research firm ​​Insight Partners. For comparison, the market was worth $10 million in 2023.

Uber Health is contributing to this growth by driving patients to appointments and providing delivery services.

Through its B2B platform, the company works with providers and nonemergent medical transport brokers, like Modivcare, to integrate Uber Health’s services into their offerings. It also offers over-the-counter medication, prescription, and grocery delivery to patients’ homes. These services are paid for by health plans, Flex cards, or through the provider itself, according to Zach Clark, global general manager at Uber Health.

Clark sat down with Healthcare Brew during this year’s CES to discuss Uber Health’s mission and long-term goals.

Keep reading here.—CM

Would you, the cost-minded CFO, be surprised to hear that healthcare benefit costs rose last year and are expected to increase at an even greater clip this year? No? We aren’t either, TBH.

Employer-sponsored health plan costs rose 4.5% in 2024 to an average per-employee cost of $16,501, marking “a second year of elevated cost growth,” according to the latest Mercer survey of organizations with at least 50 employees.

Respondents said they expect health benefit costs to increase by 5.8% in 2025. Without making changes to health plans, respondents said costs would instead rise by nearly 8%.

Costs have tracked above the overall rate of inflation going back to at least 2013, the survey report shows, with 2022 being the sole exception.

Keep reading on CFO Brew.—AZ