These next couple of posts are going to be a little dated, but I want to make sure I’m getting all of the various large funding happenings in healthcare IT and I only have so many hours in a day to post these things. Plus, hopefully I’ll add a little insight into what’s happening.
As reported by Lauren Goode on AllThings D, Jawbone received $40 million in funding from Deutsche Telekom, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Yuri Milner and investors advised by J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Those are some really big name investors that are dipping into the healthcare space. A really great sign for those considering whether health IT is a place worth investing in right now.
What’s interesting is that Jawbone was still able to close this round of funding even after the huge issues they’ve had with their UP fitness wristband. My favorite write up of the Jawbone UP issues was from Michael Arrington. Basically, the company issued a full refund to anyone and they stopped selling the Jawbone UP. Even with all of that they still get $40 million in funding.
The other oddity I’m not sure about is the CEO Hosain Rahman talking about more healthcare products coming out and also some in the audio market. $40 million can do a lot of interesting things. Whether they become profitable and a wise investment is another story. Regardless of their profitability, I’ll be interested to see what other healthcare products they come out with and what they learned from the issues they experienced with the Jawbone UP.