Metaverse technologies aren’t common in digital health just yet, but we’re seeing early signals of investment and innovation. 2021’s investors shelled out $198M in funding for U.S. digital health startups integrating VR or AR technologies across 11 deals, more than double the $93M raised across eight deals in 2020. However, 2021’s $198M investment was less than 1% of the year’s digital health funding total, reinforcing the infancy of metaverse technologies within the sector. These funding trends mirror growing regulatory activity in the space. The FDA, which hosts its own medical extended reality program, cleared metaverse solutions from AppliedVR, PrecisionOS, and Luminopia in 2021.
