Traditional venture capital investors are finding healthcare less lucrative than they did just ten years ago. So, funding opportunities for healthcare startups have decreased.

But, in recent years, large medtech companies have shown more willingness to provide startups with funding, reported the Minneapolis StarTribune‘s Joe Carlson.

Minnesota-based Medtronic, as well as other big healthcare tech players like Boston Scientific, have made scores of critical investments in small companies, often with an aim toward future acquisition.

“Drug companies are doing more of this, even payers and providers are,” Medical Alley Association CEO Shaye Mandle told Carlson. “Most of the traditional health care sectors are either making corporate-development investments or they have venture arms that are making investments in earlier-stage companies.”

And there are two-way benefits: large companies can cost-effectively groom future suppliers, and suppliers receive market insights that they wouldn’t be able to afford to glean on their own.

“It creates an access point for really good feedback for what the market looks like,” Mandle said. “If Boston Scientific is an investor in your company and they’re on your board, you’re getting lots of feedback.”

Read the whole story here, in the StarTribune.