So what? While funding may be decelerating, total 2020 funding is expected to beat 2018’s record-high ~$8.2B by a whomping ~50% and average deal size to-date (~$30M) marks a notable uptick from 2019’s (~$20M). Deal activity has continued to skew later-stage and Q4 IPOs show no signs of slowing, keeping investor enthusiasm hot (e.g., Hims & Hers’ SPAC merger, Butterfly Network’s SPAC merger, Cloudbreak Health’s SPAC merger, Livongo execs’ stealth SPAC launch set for $500M IPO). We see no reason to believe that Q4’s “contraction” in VC funding foreshadows any bending of the overarching funding trendline moving into 2021. We maintain that the take-off for telehealth propelled by COVID is likely to continue translating into expanded opportunities for adjacent technologies (e.g., remote patient monitoring, patient engagement, virtual clinical trials) with (slightly) derisked prospects for investors.      

TLDR: Last week, CommonPass, an app enabling digital documentation and sharing of individuals’ COVID status (i.e., test results and vaccination status), signed on the Airport Council International, a group representing almost 2,000 airports around the world, and JetBlue, Lufthansa, Swiss International Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic. This move follows CommonPass’ successful pilot with United Airlines. 

So what? With Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna’s vaccines now under EUA, digital health organizations are preparing to hit the market with “digital passports” in hopes of reopening domestic and international economies and travel. Key players joining the World Economic Forum’s CommonPass in the space include IBM Watson (Digital Health Pass), International Chamber of Commerce (AOKpass), Mayo Clinic & Safe Health (HealthCheck), with some like Mayo Clinic’s already indicating plans to expand the passport more broadly to infectious disease diagnostics (e.g., STI testing). In a recent interview, IBM’s healthcare blockchain solutions lead emphasized the importance of leveraging open standards (e.g., W3C) and public-private collaboration to avoid locking the world into any single proprietary “passport”. Thus, while CommonPass has seen early adoption by major organizations, we anticipate broad uptake of other leading and local solutions that prioritize interoperability and help normalize it in the lexicon and expectations of patients, providers, and governments globally.