Investment in digital healthcare remained steady at about $5 billion in 2015 compared to about the same amount in the previous year according to research firm Health 2.0. But there’s movement in the funding environment for start-up mobile health and digital healthcare companies seeking help from investors. These start-ups looking to go public or raise funding from venture capitalists face tougher scrutiny, a panel of investment bankers told attendees this week at the Health 2.0 Winter Tech conference in San Francisco.

Mobile was one of the hottest areas for healthcare technology companies looking to raise outside capital in 2015, according to the panel. Mobile health companies have received more than $2 billion in over 500 deals since 2010, with mobile health apps receiving about $900 million in more than 280 deals since 2010, says Mercom Capital Group, an Austin, Texas, healthcare information technology research and consulting company.

But mobile healthcare start-ups can expect tougher questions, especially about whether they have a unique product and how they’re going to attract a large number of users. “The investment community now wants to see how quickly a company can scale up,” said panelist David Francis, managing director and a digital healthcare investment analyst with RBC Capital Markets. “Before, investors were willing to take a flyer on the potential of this space, but that’s no longer the case.”

A company that investors bet on last year is Teledoc Inc., a mobile provider of digital doctor visits with a base of over 1,100 board-certified physicians and behavioral health professionals, which raised $157 million in June through its initial public offering. Teledoc doctors and professionals treat 11 million individuals for a wide range of conditions from acute diagnoses, such as upper respiratory infection, urinary tract infection and sinusitis, to dermatological conditions, anxiety and people trying to stop smoking. But other mobile and digital healthcare companies are not likely to get such a warm response if they try to go public, Francis said. “The Teledoc IPO was probably the high water mark for the space,” he said.

Public stock market-minded mobile and digital healthcare companies will need to prove to potential institutional investors that they offer a viable application or service that will serve a need and that they can build a big business quickly. “The value proposition for investors now has to really address the question: ‘how are you able to scale the business?’” said panelist Nina Kjellson, a digital healthcare analyst and general partner at Canaan Partners, a venture capital fund investing in early-stage information technology and healthcare companies.

Private mobile and digital healthcare companies also might find it tougher today to secure big rounds of initial and follow-up funding. Many mobile healthcare companies are seeking funding for apps that addresses a particular aspect of healthcare, such as helping diabetes patients track their insulin shots or employees compare health insurance plans. But consolidation may lead healthcare decision-makers to look more for comprehensive technology and not just another “one-off” product,” according to the panel.

The digital healthcare market will increasingly look for applications and services that are part of a universal platform, similar to the all-in-one e-commerce platforms used by many web merchants, according to the Health 2.0 panel. “Investors will be looking for how many customers you can build or scale to, (and) how fast and how effective you are at selling to very large enterprises,” said panelist Ambar Bhattacharyya, managing director at Maverick Capital Ventures.

But despite more investor scrutiny, mobile health will remain a key—and big—healthcare information technology sector that will attract ongoing investments. “This is an important and emerging part of the health business,” Bhattacharyya says. “Mobile connectivity in healthcare is becoming mainstream.”

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