Bengaluru, Jan 18 (UNI) Venture Capital funding in Healthcare IT and Digital Health companies crossed USD 5 billion for the first time in 2016, according to a consultancy group. In its annual report, Mercom Capital Group announced today that the VC funding in the sector grew 9 per cent year-on-year. It said VC funding, including private equity and corporate venture capital, in the Healthcare IT sector came in at USD 5.1 billion in 622 deals in 2016, a new record for the sector. By comparison, USD 4.6 billion was raised in 2015 in 574 deals. Total corporate funding in Health IT companies - including debt and public market financing (plus IPOs) - came to USD 5.6 billion in 2016, a drop of 30 percent compared to USD 8 billion in 2015. Since 2010, the sector has received USD 18.5 billion in VC funding in 2,672 deals and almost USD 7.5 billion in debt and public market financing (including IPOs), bringing the total funding for the sector to USD 26 billion. 'Venture Capital funding bounced back after declining in 2015,' commented Raj Prabhu, CEO and Co-founder of Mercom Capital Group. 'Digital Health public companies on the other hand continue to struggle' he added. Consumer-centric companies brought in about USD 3.5 billion in 437 deals in 2016, up from USD 3.1 billion in 403 deals in 2015. Practice-centric companies raised more than USD 1.6 billion in 185 deals in 2016, slightly up from the USD 1.5 billion raised in 171 deals in 2015. Top funded areas included: Mobile Apps, which received almost USD 1.3 billion, Wearable Sensors with USD 592 million, Data Analytics with USD 574 million, Telemedicine companies with USD 528 million, Mobile Wireless companies with USD 228 million, and Wellness with USD 218 million. A total of 1,115 investors (including accelerators/incubators) participated in VC funding rounds in Healthcare IT companies in 2016 compared to 923 in 2015. The top VC investors in 2016 were Khosla Ventures with seven deals followed by GE Ventures, Social Capital, and BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners with six deals each. There were 83 accelerator and incubator deals in 2016, compared to 55 in 2015. UNI CNR MSP cs 1241