Health startups took 21% of Australian startup funding deals in 2025, up from 11.5% in 2020. Melbourne leads: nearly 1 in 4 of its deals since 2024 went to a health company.
Health nearly doubled its share in five years
In 2020, about 1 in 9 Australian startup deals went to a health company. In 2025 it was 1 in 5: 21% of every round announced that year, according to our data. Most of that rise came in a single year: health was 14% in 2023 and 15% in 2024, then jumped to 21% in 2025.
2026 so far is 16%. That is lower than 2025, but higher than any year before it.
Australian Startup Funding DatabaseHealthtech, biotech and medtech as a share of Australian startup deals
| Year | Share | Base n |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 8% (14 of 170) | 170 |
| 2017 | 9% (16 of 172) | 172 |
| 2018 | 11% (20 of 185) | 185 |
| 2019 | 12% (23 of 198) | 198 |
| 2020 | 12% (26 of 226) | 226 |
| 2021 | 12% (34 of 273) | 273 |
| 2022 | 9% (30 of 321) | 321 |
| 2023 | 14% (38 of 278) | 278 |
| 2024 | 15% (43 of 290) | 290 |
| 2025 | 21% (51 of 247) | 247 |
| 2026 (YTD) | 16% (30 of 188) | 188 |
Health went from 11.5% of deals in 2020 to 21% in 2025.
Take the last three years together and health has taken 17% of all deals since 2024, against 10% from 2016 to 2020. Clinic software companies, drug developers and device makers are all raising more often.
Why is the money moving into health? Our view
Our data shows which rounds happened, not why. Here is our read, backed by what the investors themselves have said.
AI that saves doctors time is selling fast. The clearest example in our data is the AI scribe: software that listens to a consultation and writes the notes. Melbourne’s Heidi raised a US$65M Series B led by Point72 in October 2025. Point72’s Sri Chandrasekar said they backed it because “administrative burden is contributing to clinician burnout and capacity challenges across healthcare systems.” Less than a year later Heidi was back for a Series C led by Blackbird. Its Melbourne rival Lyrebird Health raised a A$12M Series A led by Five V Capital in 2025. Five V said Lyrebird was already writing up more than 30,000 consultations a day in Australia.
Australia’s medical research is turning into companies. In 2021, Breakthrough Victoria, CSL, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and the University of Melbourne put A$95M into a Parkville biotech incubator with room for 40 startups at a time. Spinouts take years to reach a funding round, so we would expect money like that to show up in the deal count around now.
Government money now backs health directly. The National Reconstruction Fund took a A$54M stake in Synchron’s A$305M Series D in November 2025, and backed eye-implant maker PolyActiva’s A$40M raise earlier that year. Four years before, Synchron had moved from Melbourne to the US because it was “unable to raise enough capital in Australia”. Now an Australian government fund is on its cap table.
I saw the same shift in the national numbers. As I wrote on LinkedIn in May 2026, reading Cut Through Venture’s first-quarter report:
“The largest rounds went to space and defence, hardware and robotics, cybersecurity, AI infrastructure, life sciences and climate and energy. The Canva and Airwallex era of Australian tech was built on software. The next one looks to be taking a different route.”
Melbourne is where the health deals are
Nearly 1 in 4 Melbourne startup deals since 2024 went to a health company: 24%, according to our data. In Sydney it was 11%, about 1 in 9. Melbourne now has twice as many health deals as Sydney, from fewer deals overall.
Heidi and Lyrebird Health are Melbourne companies, and Synchron was founded there. So was Everlab, the preventive health clinic that raised an A$65M Series A led by Airtree in June 2026. Before 2021 the gap was small: from 2016 to 2020, 12% of Melbourne deals were health, against 10% in Sydney.
Australian Startup Funding DatabaseMelbourne: health companies as a share of the city's startup deals
| Year | Share | Base n |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 4% (1 of 23) | 23 |
| 2017 | 10% (3 of 29) | 29 |
| 2018 | 23% (5 of 22) | 22 |
| 2019 | 9% (2 of 22) | 22 |
| 2020 | 14% (4 of 28) | 28 |
| 2021 | 23% (9 of 40) | 40 |
| 2022 | 13% (4 of 32) | 32 |
| 2023 | 26% (10 of 38) | 38 |
| 2024 | 13% (7 of 52) | 52 |
| 2025 | 32% (17 of 53) | 53 |
| 2026 (YTD) | 28% (7 of 25) | 25 |
Nearly 1 in 4 Melbourne startup deals since 2024 went to a health company.
Melbourne’s overall share of deals rose too: read Melbourne vs Sydney for Australian startup funding.
Health now raises A$100M rounds
From 2016 to 2020, not one Australian health startup raised a round of A$100M or more. Since 2024, five have, according to our data. Two of them, Heidi and Synchron, appear above. Sydney’s Harrison.ai, which uses AI to read medical scans, raised a US$112M Series C in February 2025. Online clinic Eucalyptus raised A$190M in November 2025, and AdvanCell, which develops radiopharmaceutical cancer treatments, raised in July 2026. See every health round since 2024, largest first.
Australian Startup Funding DatabaseAustralian health startup rounds, 2024 to 2026, largest first
5 of 124 deals, largest first
| Date | Company | Round | Sector | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heidi Health | Series C | Tech | A$517M | overnightsuccess.vc | |
| Heidi | Series C | Tech | A$517M | overnightsuccess.vc | |
| Heidi Health | Series C | Tech | A$340M | dealstreetasia.com | |
| AdvanCell | Series D+ | Deep tech | A$315M | instagram.com | |
| Synchron | Series D+ | Deep tech | A$305M | innovationaus.com |
Heidi's 2026 Series C tops the list, ahead of AdvanCell and Synchron.
Raising in health? Hire for the hard parts of the job
More health rounds means more health founders reaching the point where someone has to own the numbers. In our study of when Australian startups hire finance, Series A is the usual trigger for a first finance hire and Series B for a first CFO. Health companies hit the same triggers, but the job is heavier. R&D tax claims, grant reporting and cash planned around trials or approvals all land on one person.
Founders often respond by insisting on someone who has done it in health before. As I wrote on LinkedIn in June 2026 about deep tech, which has the same problem:
“The best candidates for a Deep tech CFO role aren’t always sitting in Deep tech. They’re often in heavy/food manufacturing, defence or even mining.”
Our recommendation: hire your finance lead before the next raise starts, and write the brief around the problems they will walk into, such as the R&D claim cycle, the grant milestones and the runway to your next trial result. Then look beyond health for the person. Someone who has run finance for a long, expensive project with demanding technical people will pick up the health detail quickly.
Raising in health? You'll need a finance lead to get you through it. We'll find you the best person.
Tom calls you back, usually within one business day. Or call 02 9099 7619.
Not hiring yet? Explore every healthtech, biotech and medtech round, with stage, city and investors, in the Australian startup funding database.
Sources and notes
Data. All deal figures come from the Story Recruitment Australian Startup Funding Database: 2,548 announced Australian startup rounds from January 2016 to early October 2026. 2026 runs from January to early October.
What counts as health. The database views and the body figures count rows labelled healthtech, biotech, medtech or healthtech AI. That is 21% of deals in 2025 (51 of 247), 11.5% in 2020 (26 of 226), 13.7% in 2023 (38 of 278), 14.8% in 2024 (43 of 290) and 16% in 2026 to date (30 of 188). Pooled, it is 98 of 951 deals in 2016 to 2020 (10%) and 124 of 725 in 2024 to 2026 (17%). A wider definition that also catches niche labels (mental health, radiopharmaceuticals, medical imaging and similar) adds about three deals a year: 54 of 247 (22%) in 2025. The trend is the same either way.
Cities. City shares cover only deals with a known city, which is roughly half the rows. In 2024 to 2026, 31 of 130 Melbourne deals (24%) and 15 of 142 Sydney deals (11%) were health. In 2016 to 2020 it was 15 of 124 (12%) and 20 of 209 (10%).
A$100M rounds count distinct companies with a row of at least A$100M (approximate, converted from US dollars where needed): none in 2016 to 2020, three in 2021 to 2023 and five in 2024 to 2026. Several rounds appear as more than one row because more than one outlet reported them, which is why Heidi shows up more than once in the table above, and why the A$100M counts use companies, not rows. Market dollar totals are not taken from our data: Cut Through Venture and Folklore Ventures counted A$5.1B across 390 Australian deals in 2025.
Why. The reasons in “Our view” are our interpretation, supported by the investor statements and reports linked in the text. The Lyrebird figure of 30,000 consultations a day comes from Five V Capital (August 2025). The Synchron quote and the A$54M stake come from InnovationAus (November 2025).
Coverage. The database covers about two thirds of the market (247 deals in 2025, against 390 in Cut Through Venture’s count) and leans towards rounds that got press coverage. Health counts are under 30 in most single years before 2021, so read those years as direction only. Dates come from announcement coverage, and in a spot check about 1 in 7 rows sat in a neighbouring year or month. The full method is in the explainer on how we built the database.
How to cite this: Source: Story Recruitment Australian Startup Funding Database (2016 to 2026), storyrecruitment.com.au/insights/australian-startup-funding, CC BY 4.0.
Common questions
What share of Australian startup funding deals go to health companies?
About 1 in 5. Healthtech, biotech and medtech startups took 21% of Australian funding deals in 2025, up from 11.5% in 2020, according to the Story Recruitment Australian Startup Funding Database. So far in 2026 it is 16%.
Why are investors backing more Australian health startups?
Our view: AI tools that cut doctors' paperwork are selling fast and investors want in, Melbourne's medical research precinct is producing more spinouts, and government investors such as the National Reconstruction Fund now back health companies directly. Point72 said it backed Heidi because administrative burden is contributing to clinician burnout.
Which Australian city has the most health startup deals?
Melbourne. Nearly 1 in 4 Melbourne startup deals from 2024 to 2026 went to a health company (24%), against about 1 in 9 in Sydney (11%). Heidi, Lyrebird Health and Everlab are Melbourne companies, and Synchron was founded there.
Which Australian health startups have raised A$100M or more?
Five since 2024: Heidi, Harrison.ai, Eucalyptus, Synchron and AdvanCell. Three did it in 2021 to 2023 (Harrison.ai, Heidi and Saluda Medical). From 2016 to 2020, none did.
When does a health startup need a CFO?
Before your next raise starts, and usually by Series B. Health companies spend years and a lot of cash before trial results or approvals arrive, so investors ask hard questions about runway early. You want someone owning those answers before the process starts. The best person does not have to come from health: finance leads from manufacturing, defence and mining have run long, expensive projects too.
These guides set out how we see it, drawn from the searches we run and the finance leaders we work with. They are general information about the market, not financial, accounting or legal advice, and they are no substitute for advice on your own circumstances.