2025 Healthcare Platforms Report: Network Effects Produce Runaway Investor Returns
Summit Health Advisors’ 2025 State of Healthcare Platforms Report is the trusted source for novel analysis and insight into the world of network effects in healthcare. In this report, we share novel research into the extraordinary performance of digital health platforms over the past year, and the past decade.
Network effects-driven businesses are uniquely suited to tackle the greatest, and most complex, challenges in healthcare. As such, network effects have cemented themselves as the undisputed value engine for digital health companies looking to revolutionize healthcare.
Over the past decade, digital health platforms have outperformed pure software (SaaS) companies across all major measures of success: investor returns, scalability, efficiency, profitability and more. Further, the gap between platform and non-platform businesses is widening over time as investor confidence increases in the viability and value of network effects in healthcare.
In our 2025 report, we analyze the major platform funding and performance trends from the previous year and the impact that network effects have had in healthcare over the course of the decade.
Executive Summary
“While network stakeholders may have conflicting interests, ultimately everyone wants the same thing. Everybody wants a better health outcome. So as long as everything we do is going to prioritize the patient’s interests, it will end up prioritizing every stakeholder’s interest.”
The Data Is In: Investments In Digital Health Platforms Realize a 17x Cash-on-Cash Return
Our report reveals that while platform companies receive a relatively modest portion of total digital health investment dollars, they far exceed their non-platform peers in terms of investor returns.
For every dollar invested into a platform business at the Seed stage, investors realize a nearly $17 return by Series D, which is 2.6x greater than a dollar invested into a non-platform business ($16.71 vs $6.41). This is based on the analysis of 3,419 digital health companies that have raised venture capital since 2016.
Further, platform businesses reach Series D or beyond at nearly the same rate as non-platform businesses, with 11% of platforms reaching this stage versus 12% of non-platforms. On top of this, digital health platforms grow from Seed to Series D in 90 months on average, as opposed to 104 months for non-platforms.
So, not only do platform companies in healthcare defy the popular myth that they fail at a greater rate than pure software companies, they grow faster and produce superior returns for investors.
Access the 2025 State of Healthcare Platforms Report to get deeper analysis and insights into the ever-shifting platform landscape.
Insights From Leading Platform Companies and CEOs
In the report, several of today’s leading platform CEOs share their first-hand experiences and winning philosophies to building strong network effects and dominate businesses in healthcare. Interviews include: Kyna Fong, Co-founder and CEO at Elation Health; Kyle Kiser, CEO at Arrive Health; and Brad Kittredge, Founder and CEO at Brightside Health.
We also investigate a handful of today’s most iconic health tech firm to examine how they leverage network effects to drive unrivalled growth, defensibility and profitability. Major case studies include: Epic, Doximity and Tempus AI.
“The most powerful network effect for a company like us is patient flow. You can earn this with a larger number of providers. But you can also earn it with quality, with a value proposition that solves a real healthcare problem and a specific use case.”
Over the decade, what has became clear is that digital health platforms not just outperformed their non-platform peers, but that as platform businesses scale, the gap between platforms and non-platforms widens severely - in both private and public markets.
Request the 2025 State of the Healthcare Platforms Report to dive deeper into the latest platform analysis and insights.
If you have any questions about the report or interest in discussing network effects in healthcare, please reach out to Summit Health Advisors.
