An early 2026 life sciences update from Cushman & Wakefield reports that well known hubs will continue to anchor employment growth and drive workspace demand. Meanwhile, “large secondary markets — including New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles–Orange County and Chicago — are well positioned to become increasingly important growth centers.”
Then there are the emerging markets of Costa Rica, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Salt Lake City, Phoenix and Austin, which the report states “have recorded employment growth of more than 30%, with the sharpest increases in Costa Rica (248%), Houston (82%), Salt Lake City (74%) and Atlanta (72%).”
By special arrangement with Cushman & Wakefield and their senior research analyst for global research Maggie Tillotson, in these pages we go deeper into heretofore unpublished analysis of health techventure capital data from 37 markets ranging from Berlin to Boston, Montreal to Milan and San Francisco to Suzhou. — Ed.
Over the past decade (2016–2025), health tech VC funding across the 37 markets* included in the analysis totaled nearly $237 billion. The peak year for funding was 2021, with $47 billion raised. Funding surged in the most recent five-year period (2021–2025), reaching $156 billion, which represented a 98% increase over the previous five years. VC funding in 2025 topped $30.5 billion, a 12% year-over-year increase. This was likely driven by rising health care costs and rapid advancements in AI, which have intensified focus on tech-enabled health care solutions.
Among global markets, health tech VC investment was highly concentrated in three U.S. markets: the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston and New York. Together, these hubs accounted for more than half of all VC funding across the 37 markets over the last 10 years. While each of these markets is distinct, all three have competitive life sciences ecosystems that continue to attract companies, investors and developers focused on growth in science, technology and health care.
The San Francisco Bay Area benefits from a world-class technology ecosystem and a robust life sciences research base anchored by top-tier universities. It is home to the nation’s largest life sciences inventory and posted over 4.0 million sq. ft. (msf) of total leasing activity in 2026, leading all U.S. life sciences markets. Its growing AI sector should further strengthen its position as a leading market for both health tech and life sciences investment.
Boston stands out as a global leader in life sciences R&D, supported by premier research universities and collaborative innovation across health care and biotech. Since 2021, the market has expanded its life sciences inventory by 22 msf, with an additional 3.4 msf currently under construction, creating an established life sciences infrastructure that health tech companies can leverage.
While New York’s life sciences footprint is smaller than its peers, it continues to expand, drawing firms with its highly educated talent pool and network of academic and medical institutions. When combined with the market’s growing tech sector, top-ranked hospitals and role as a leading global financial hub, New York will continue to be an attractive destination for health tech capital.
Other markets with strong health tech VC activity include San Diego, Los Angeles, London, Denver and Chicago, all recognized as established life sciences markets with over 52.1 msf of life sciences inventory.
IPO activity in health tech remains modest compared to VC funding, reflecting the sector’s preference for private capital. From 2016 to 2025, nearly $20 billion was raised across 138 public offerings. Established life sciences markets like Boston and the San Francisco Bay Area led in IPO activity, mirroring their dominance in VC funding. Notably, Shanghai ranked third and Beijing seventh in IPO capital raised over the last decade.
Emerging Markets: Chinese Mainland & Texas Trio
While health tech VC funding is less active in emerging markets, Shanghai and Beijing both ranked among the top 10 markets over the last decade. As two of mainland China’s leading life sciences hubs, these markets delivered more than 1.2 million square meters (12.9 msf) of life sciences space over the last two years. In addition, they benefit from strong government backing, significant investment from both domestic and international companies and an aging population which requires more extensive care, all reinforcing health tech growth.
Among U.S. emerging markets, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston led in health tech VC funding over the last five years. The Texas markets are still in the early stages of life sciences development, with growing inventory bases and nearly 1.5 msf of space currently under construction. This growth, combined with an influx of tech talent from higher-cost coastal cities, strong health care systems and growing workforces, should continue to attract health tech capital.
Shanghai and Beijing accounted for 93% of health tech IPO capital raised among Chinese Mainland and emerging markets over the last 10 years. Since 2016, 25 health tech companies have gone public in those two markets. Chinese Mainland markets benefit from government policy and local ecosystems that enable IPO activity. This strength in public offerings should support further growth in both the health tech and life sciences spaces.
Among U.S. emerging markets, Dallas–Fort Worth was a notable player, with four health tech companies going public over the past decade.
*Markets include Atlanta, GA; Austin, TX; Barcelona, ESP; Beijing, CHN; Belgium; Berlin, DEU; Boston, MA; Cambridge, ENG; Chicago, IL; Costa Rica; Dallas–Fort Worth, TX; Denver-Boulder, CO; Houston, TX; Indianapolis, IN; Leiden, NLD; London, ENG; Los Angeles-Orange County, CA; Milan, ITA; Montreal, CAN; Munich, DEU; New Jersey; New York City; Oxford, ENG; Paris, FRA; Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix, AZ; Raleigh-Durham, NC; Rhine-Neckar, DEU; Salt Lake City, UT; San Diego, CA; San Francisco Bay Area, CA; Seattle, WA; Shanghai, CHN; Suburban Maryland; Suzhou, CHN; Toronto, CAN; Vancouver, CAN.
Sources: PitchBook Data, Inc., Cushman & Wakefield Research; data has not been reviewed by PitchBook analysts
Brittany L. Hogan, Founder, FairGiver
Editor in Chief Adam Bruns spoke with FairGiver Founder Brittany Hogan in Chicago in March.
Health Tech Solutions: One Founder’s Journey
Areport released in March 2026 by AARP finds that the $1.01 trillion value of family caregiving in the United States (nearly all of it unpaid) exceeds the total amount of federal, state and local Medicaid spending in 2024 ($932 billion). In early March at PACE Healthcare Capital’s Midwest Women in Digital Health conference convened in the upwardly trending Fulton Market neighborhood in Chicago, I spoke with Brittany L. Hogan, founder of an app called FairGiver, which she described as a digital tool for caregivers to help them better navigate and understand medical appointments.
“When they go into an appointment, they record what the provider is saying and it spits out a plain language summary, follow-up questions relevant to what they said and possible next steps,” Hogan told me during a break in the conference, which attracted more than 175 attendees from across the country. “Then while they’re at home, they can record notes about what’s been going on, so when they go to see providers or go to the emergency room, they have a clear track of what happened when it happened,” enabling caregivers to cut to the chase with health care providers so patients can be treated faster and better.
Hogan’s goal is to enable caregivers to be better advocates, especially in high-stress moments involving complex care. “Something just happened, somebody’s mom just had a heart attack, they don’t know what to do and then somebody’s looking at them asking, ‘Should we do this procedure?’ There’s a 50-50 chance, but what are you thinking? It’s like, “I have no idea.’ So I really want to help caregivers [be] confident in making those decisions.”
Hogan says she’s received strong support from people in the field validating the idea “because caregiving is something people don’t think about. They think about the health care systems, they think about the patients, but they don’t think about that person that’s in between.”
She’s looking to connect with AARP and other agencies focused on aging in society, especially to reach not only those currently in a caregiver role, but millennials and younger generations, people whom caregiving is going to affect as parents and others in their lives naturally age, but who “just don’t know it yet.”
Hogan was one of those people. “I was just taking care of my mom,” she said. “I didn’t know about the programs, I didn’t know about the grants, I didn’t know about anything that could have helped then.” The opportunity lies in how many among those tens of millions of unpaid caregivers in the United States “don’t even know that that’s what they are. They’re just trying to keep somebody alive, or get them home, or get them better.”
It’s like people who have an injury but refuse to recognize the pain, I suggested. “Yeah, because you don’t know,” Hogan said, acknowledging that she has a gift for creating systems to keep up with things, but not everyone does. “So I saw the potential of a lot of people slipping through the cracks … I really want to help fill those gaps.”
Asked who sparked her belief in herself, Hogan said it was a woman she met at random at a startup event, Dawn Bartholomew, an investment and M&A expert who is currently a partner at Chukka Capital Advisors. “I was there to support one of my friends, and we were sitting next to each other,” Hogan said. “I’m a yapper, so we were just talking and talking about the different people who were pitching. Somebody had a health care app and I talked about other businesses I was working on — I’m a filmmaker — and then I was like, ‘Oh I have this idea for this app. I’ve had it for a while,’ and she was like, ‘That’s an amazing idea. I’m a health tech investor. I would love to mentor you and support you in whatever way I can.’ With her just having that belief in just the one sentence of me explaining it and talking about my mom, I said, ‘Okay, I have to fast-track this.’
That happened in September 2025. Now Hogan has more advisors on board and is embarking on a pilot. In a LinkedIn post in April she spoke of why such conversations matter when growing an idea into a viable venture: “Building can’t just happen behind a laptop. It happens in rooms I choose to show up in.” — Adam Bruns
