Bain Capital Global Healthcare Private Equity Report: 10 Key Takeaways
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What Differentiates Winning Healthcare IT Investments
1. Healthcare IT has delivered superior returns vs. other healthcare subsectors since 2017 and now represents roughly 20% of healthcare PE deal volume, up from about 15% in 2021.
2. 2025 saw standout HCIT deals globally, including ModMed and HealthEdge/HealthProof in North America, Softway Medical Group in Europe and multiple AI-enabled RCM platforms in Asia such as AGS Health and Smarter Technologies.
3. Performance expectations have reset upward: leading HCIT assets now clear a “Rule of 60” (growth plus EBITDA margin above 60%), versus the traditional software Rule of 40.
4. Structural demand drivers, billing complexity, workflow digitization, interoperability needs, and value-based care are keeping IT spend a top priority for providers and payers and underpin continued HCIT deal activity.
5. The asset pipeline remains healthy, with many sponsor-owned HCIT businesses nearing the end of their holding periods, supporting ongoing transaction flow.
6. The value-creation model has shifted from simple adoption-led growth (eg. EMR rollouts post‑HITECH) to more complex, underwritten value levers baked into the base case of deals.
7. Generative AI is a central value lever, used both to boost revenue (new products, enhanced offerings) and cut costs (workflow automation, back-office efficiencies), while also serving as a hedge against disruption.
8. Commercial excellence is critical: investors are emphasizing sophisticated pricing/packaging programs, product and feature bundling, and structured upsell/cross-sell go-to-market motions.
9. M&A is a core tool in the playbook, used to accelerate growth, expand into adjacencies, and capture substantial cost synergies within HCIT platforms.
10. To win, HCIT companies must aggressively embed generative AI, refine pricing and business models, and proactively manage downside and competitive risks to achieve Rule-of-60 outcomes and attractive exit returns.
Healthcare private equity reached a record high in global deal value in 2025, powered by large transactions and overcoming a slowdown in the second quarter in both North America and Asia-Pacific.
Deal count posted the second-highest annual total on record, with strength across all deal sizes. And provider and biopharma anchored activity while healthcare IT continued to grow its share of healthcare transaction volume.
Our report explores the underlying trends in 2025, including rising investor confidence in market fundamentals in the face of headwinds, the importance of operational sophistication, the return of sponsor-to-sponsor activity, and the growing importance of AI and technology. Looking ahead, investors will need conviction in their value-creation playbooks to deliver outsized returns as competition for assets remains intense.
Bain’s Healthcare Private Equity Leadership Team
Source: https://www.bain.com/insights/topics/global-healthcare-private-equity-report