Healthcare funding is surging again. Crunchbase data shows investors put an estimated $10.7 billion globally into startups in AI-powered health tech categories so far this year — already 24% higher than 2024’s full-year total.
But what funders are failing to understand is that in this sector, adoption happens in regulatory cycles instead of viral ones. Their impatient push for hockey-stick growth is quietly suffocating the kind of systemic change that healthcare actually needs.
Bessemer Venture Partners’ 2025 Healthcare AI Adoption Index found that while most health systems are running pilots, only 3 in 10 projects reach production. This shows that venture speed keeps outpacing the system’s ability to absorb it.
When investors push for short-term traction, founders are forced to chase momentum instead of integration. They pivot to whatever metric looks good on a dashboard, even if it drags them further from clinical adoption. Some health tech startups start building out infrastructure that could reshape the system, but end up building features that fit pitch decks. The result is predictable: high burn, high noise and very little real change.
This is not a problem of bad intentions. It is a problem of mismatched time horizons. In consumer tech, speed is a moat. In healthcare, it’s often a mirage. Trust, validation and interoperability are what compound value here, and those take years. The biggest returns in healthcare don’t come from the first wave of hype. They come from the infrastructure that everyone else eventually depends on. But that kind of staying power requires patient capital, not tourist capital.
Why healthcare resists ‘move fast’ culture
Healthcare AI is entering a defining moment. The same ingredients that fueled the crypto boom are all here. Rapid innovation, speculative funding and a flood of new entrants. If the sector keeps overpromising and underdelivering, a correction is inevitable.
The antidote is integration. The companies that will last are the ones building with clinicians and health systems, not around them. They are teams that understand data standards, compliance and workflow realities. If AI companies in healthcare focus on solving grounded, verifiable problems rather than chasing headlines, they can avoid the crash cycle and deliver real transformation.
The bubble no one wants to name
There is also a valuation gap worth watching. The “AI wellness” segment has exploded because it is fast to market, light on regulation and easy to pitch. Engagement metrics are plentiful, while validation is optional.
Meanwhile, the “AI clinical” space, focused on diagnostics, decision support and infrastructure, is slower and harder. Yet, it is where the defensible IP, regulatory moats and long-term value live. Five years from now, the speculative wellness valuations will likely correct downward while clinically grounded AI platforms quietly underpin global health systems.
Founders who win play the long game
For founders, the path forward begins with alignment. Not every investor understands healthcare, and that is fine. The goal is to find those who do. It is a waste of energy to educate fast-turnover capital.
In this regard, it is wise to design for adoption, not hype. A technology that fits neatly into an existing workflow will outlast dozens of flashier competitors. Founders who anchor their story in outcomes and compliance, not features, will earn the trust that drives longevity.
Patient investors will own the future
Investors have a role to play, too. If they want meaningful change, they need to fund patient trust, not just fast algorithms. A model can be brilliant and still fail if it never earns clinical confidence.
They should back integration-first models and think in decades, not quarters. Healthcare transformation doesn’t follow startup speed, and it never will. The investors who accept that and stay committed through early friction will own the platforms everyone else eventually builds on.
At its best, the real compounding advantage of investing in healthcare AI is about underwriting the next operating system for global health. Those who understand that difference will not only create impact but will also capture the kind of returns that only compound when you have the patience to wait.
Jonathan Kron is the CEO of BloodGPT, an AI-powered platform for diagnostic laboratories and clinics that interprets blood test results in seconds. He is a healthcare strategist and entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience building and scaling healthcare ventures. Before joining BloodGPT he founded and exited Med24, a London-based clinic (raised £5 million, exited 2022), co-founded PCG, a Monaco-based healthcare-at-home startup that secured $1 million-plus in contracts on a $500,000 seed budget, and has advised digital health ventures including Klarity and LIPS Healthcare on major fundraising and growth.
Illustration: Dom Guzman
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