Mega-deals drive Q1 digital health funding to $4B

Total funding for digital health companies reached $4 billion in the first quarter of 2026, propelled by mega-deals, according to a new Rock Health report.

The quarterly report shows that Q1 2026 funding totaled $4 billion across 110 deals, exceeding Q1 2025 by $1 billion. By this time last year, there was $3 billion in funding across 122 deals.

The average deal size also spiked to the highest average Rock Health has tracked in a single quarter since the fourth quarter of 2021, reaching $36.7 million.

Mega-deals -- deals raising more than $100 million in funding -- drove the recent funding totals, with 59% of all capital deployed in the quarter attributed to 12 mega-deals. These include Whoop's $575 million in Series G funding, Talkiatry's $210 million in Series D financing and OpenEvidence's $250 million in Series D funding.

"We haven't seen this many nine-figure checks in a quarter since pandemic peak (Q1 2022)," the report authors wrote. "At this pace, 2026 would close with nearly 50 mega deals, almost double last year's count."

Still, geopolitical risks and inflation concerns are impacting the digital health landscape, creating market volatility. At the end of 2025, Rock Health expected more companies to follow Hinge Health and Omada Health into the public market; however, that trend has not materialized.

Mergers and acquisitions were also a mixed bag in Q1 2026. There were 43 digital health deals, up slightly from the 30 in Q4 2025.

Stronger momentum was observed in the AI and direct-to-consumer (DTC) arenas.

Rock Health noted that it is retiring its "AI deal" tracking analysis as AI has become a core component of digital health solutions. Even as AI investment continues to rise and valuations reach sky-high levels, the report noted that the companies most successful at raising funding in this area are those focused on complex, workflow-embedded use cases, such as OpenEvidence, which provides clinical decision support, telehealth capabilities and AI coding suggestions within EHRs.

Companies also expanded their DTC channels, including Hims & Hers, which acquired the Australian digital health company Eucalyptus in a transaction valued at up to $1.15 billion. Additionally, tech giants like OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft and others have launched DTC AI chatbots to support healthcare consumers seeking health information.

"The first quarter of 2026 points to a market that is active, but selective," the report authors concluded. "For organizations operating in an AI-as-table-stakes environment, expectations are shifting around how care is accessed and delivered -- and the rest of the year will clarify where momentum is durable and where it's just temporary."

Anuja Vaidya has covered the healthcare industry since 2012. She currently covers the virtual healthcare landscape, including telehealth, remote patient monitoring and digital therapeutics.