New med-tech investment firm Vensana Capital reported Wednesday that it has closed an inaugural fund, Vensana Capital I, with $225 million in committed capital. The venture capital and growth equity investment firm, launched earlier this year, aims to use the fund to invest in 10 to 12 companies, with commitment sizes ranging from $10 million to $30 million per company.

The fund, which was oversubscribed, will focus on companies across the med-tech sector, including medical devices, diagnostics and information systems, digital health, drug delivery and technology-enabled services. Vensana does not plan to invest in biopharma ventures.

Tokyo-based Terumo Corp. already had a formal limited partner relationship with one U.S. venture firm, early medical device-focused, Mountain View, Calif.-based Emergent Medical Partners (EMP) that dates to 2013. Now it has added investment in two more venture firms, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Strategic Healthcare Investment Partners and Boston-based Catalyst Health Ventures.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has helped the med-tech industry in numerous ways. From genomics, to screening, to diagnostics, AI has made things easier for clinicians.

And that has caught the eye of investors. According to Mercom Capital Group LLC, as a whole, digital health venture capital funding in the second quarter 2019 jumped from the previous quarter ($3.1 billion raised in 169 deals vs. $2 billion raised in 149 deals).

LONDON – Quanta Dialysis Technologies Ltd. has raised £38 million (US$46.7 million) in the first close of a series C round, to fund a U.S. FDA 510(k) submission and U.K. commercial launch of its SC+ home hemodialysis system. With the cash now in hand, both these events are due to occur before the end of 2019. "We've got a lot of work to do," said John Milad, CEO of Quanta. "This is the rocket fuel."

It has been a few years since there was an active market for digital health IPOs. But that's changed now. Chronic health care management company Livongo Health Inc. has raised $355 million in an IPO, following last month's $609 million public debut for health care workflow management software company Change Healthcare Inc.

With the ongoing push toward value-based care, providers are looking for ways to improve patient outcomes while also lowering health care costs. Los Angeles-based Dearhealth Inc.'s artificial intelligence-powered software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform aims to do meet that demand by helping physicians better manage patients with chronic conditions. Now Philips Health Technology Ventures and other large investors are putting their money behind the company, seeing an opportunity to generate real movement in advance population health.

Xealth Inc., of Seattle, closed a series A financing with an additional $3 million from new investors Atrium Health, Cleveland clinic and Memorialcare Innovation Fund. The proceeds, which now total $14 million, will go toward further developing and deploying the company's digital prescribing and analytics platform. The company focuses on helping health systems organize and utilize digital health tools to optimize workflow, patient engagement and financial results.