Device fundraising in Q4 2017 totaled $2.6 billion, the highest single-quarter value of the year. However, total 2017 financing for the industry declined from 2016: $8.4 billion in 2017 compared with $8.9 billion from the previous year. This wasn't a significant decline, but a decline nonetheless. One major difference in 2017 was notably less money coming in from IPOs – in 2016, companies raised $2 billion through IPOs, exponentially more than 2017's $175 million (but approximately $1.8 billion in 2016 was from a single IPO transaction, by ConvaTec Inc.[See Deal]). In 2017, debt offerings gradually grew in value, reaching well over $1 billion in the final two quarters. In contrast, there was a notable decline in early-stage financings, which totaled $990 million in Q1, but slowed down to just $152 million in Q4, although the majority of the Q1 figure was from Verily Life Sciences LLC's $800 million Series A round from Temasek [See Deal]. (See Exhibit 1.)
Exhibit 1
