Healthline Secures $14 Million In Funding From Leading Strategic
Investors
New Financing Led by
VantagePoint Venture Partners Includes
Backing from Reed Elsevier Ventures, Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and JHK
Investments
SAN FRANCISCO – January 24, 2006 –
Healthline (www.healthline.com),
the first Internet search engine dedicated to consumer healthcare,
today announced it has secured $14 million in funding. The series was
led by VantagePoint Venture Partners, a leading venture capital fund
with over $2.8 billion under management, with additional backing from
U.K.-based Reed Elsevier Ventures, the venture arm of the world’s
largest publisher of medical information, Mitsui & Co, Ltd., one of
Japan’s largest general trading companies, and JHK Investments, a
healthcare venture capital firm.
This round of funding will accelerate Healthline’s ability to
capitalize on the rapidly growing demand for online resources to help
consumers make more informed and confident healthcare choices. Since
its Q4 2005 beta launch, Healthline has attracted nearly 1.5 million
unique visitors who have benefited from the company’s innovative
Medically Guided SearchSMexperience.
The backing from the world’s leading medical information
provider and a global trading company with a commitment to expand its
base in the Japanese healthcare system will enable Healthline to focus
on continuing an aggressive growth strategy through enhancing its
product portfolio and building strategic partnerships.
“The market opportunity for vertical search in healthcare is quite
clear, with upwards of 100 million U.S. consumers accessing the
Internet for health and medical information annually. VantagePoint
continues to be very bullish on the growing demand for individuals to
use the Web to become better informed and manage this critical issue in
their lives,” said Richard Harroch, a managing director in VantagePoint
Venture Partners’ Software & Internet group. “Healthline has
quickly established itself as the premiere health search technology
that will accelerate the growth around this major consumer trend.”
Healthline’s Medically Guided SearchSM
platform addresses the
shortcomings of general search engines by using a combination of
semantic search technology and a comprehensive consumer health taxonomy
- the largest of its kind - comprised of more than 850,000 medical
terms and synonyms, and over 50,000 interrelated medical concepts.
These resources uniquely enable Healthline to translate everyday
language and precisely match it to medical terminology so consumers can
quickly filter results to the exact information needed. The Company’s
proprietary HealthMaps®, developed in conjunction with more than
1,100 leading physicians and medical informatics professionals, enable
consumers to visually explore all of the information related to a
disease or condition without the need to repeatedly type new queries
into the search box.
“Healthline’s innovative search technology, coupled with its commitment
to provide high-quality, trusted medical information and resources,
make it a clear choice for investment by Reed Elsevier Ventures,” said
Kevin Brown, partner at Reed Elsevier Ventures. “Our financial
partnership with Healthline should enable Reed Elsevier to leverage its
deep content assets as the company continues to extend its global
healthcare publishing business.”
Kenichi Kitajima, general manager of the Pharmaceutical and Medical
Business unit of Mitsui, added, “Mitsui is very enthusiastic about
Healthline’s position as a leading vertical search platform whose
unique capabilities are needed in Japan and beyond. We believe that
Healthline’s mission of filling the healthcare information gap between
consumers and physicians will perfectly meet unfulfilled needs in
Japan, as it does in the U.S. Healthline understands the changing
dynamics in consumer healthcare and has developed significant
intellectual property to address the global demand for improving
patient education. As the healthcare systems in Japan and other
countries struggle to keep pace with the needs of an aging population,
we see a great opportunity for combining our resources and efforts.”
“Healthline has consistently held to a single goal: to deliver exactly
what consumers are looking for in healthcare search – trusted,
comprehensive and relevant medical information that empowers them to
make better and more confident decisions about their health,” said West
Shell III, chairman and chief executive officer of Healthline. “The
market demand for the company’s product portfolio is accelerating, and
the addition of these two highly respected companies, with their
world-class medical expertise and distribution networks, reinforces
Healthline’s leadership position.”
About Healthline
Healthline Networks, Inc. provides the easiest way for consumers to
find, understand and manage healthcare information, empowering them to
make more informed decisions that lead to better health. Created in
collaboration with 1,100 physicians and medical specialists,
Healthline’s unique Medically Guided Search™ experience is powered by a
consumer health taxonomy that encompasses nearly one million medical
terms and synonyms – the largest of its kind, and one which translates
everyday language and precisely matches it to complex medical
information. Healthline is defining the HealthWeb, a filtered directory
currently consisting of more than 66,000 health-oriented websites and
90 million pages of medical content. Combined with the company’s visual
HealthMaps® and personalization tools, Healthline connects users
with the information, people and resources not readily available
through general search engines or today’s online health destinations.
Based in San Francisco, Healthline is backed by VantagePoint Venture
Partners, Reed Elsevier Ventures, Mitsui & Co., Ltd., and JHK
Investments, LLC.
About VantagePoint Venture Partners
VantagePoint Venture Partners is among the leading venture firms in the
world with more than $2.8 billion of capital under management. The Firm
invests exclusively in technology driven companies and is organized
around deep expertise and resources in five principal areas of
interest: CleanTech, Communications, Healthcare, Semiconductors, and
Software/Internet. VantagePoint is a multi-stage investor, investing in
high growth businesses at all stages of development. The Firm supports
each of its portfolio companies, including such investments as
Allbusiness.com, Datran Media, and Intermix Media with the resources of
a dedicated team of VantagePoint professionals able to contribute a
blend of company building, technology, operations, marketing, and
corporate finance expertise. For more information: www.vpvp.com.
About JHK Investments
JHK Investments, LLC is an investment partnership founded by the former
senior management of the United States Surgical Corporation: Leon C.
Hirsch, USSC’s former chairman, CEO and founder; Turi Josefsen, former
president of international operations and executive vice president of
USSC and Robert A. Knarr, former president of North American operations
and executive vice president of USSC. Collectively, the partners have
close to 100 years of experience in marketing medical and other
products worldwide, and built and managed a $1.5 billion medical device
business.
About Reed Elsevier Ventures
Reed Elsevier Ventures is the venture arm of Reed Elsevier Group plc
and was established in 2000. The Venture team is responsible for making
investments in innovative companies that have the potential to provide
the Group with new technologies, products, services or customers. Reed
Elsevier’s trusted brands, customer reach and ever increasing digital
delivery make the Group an ideal commercial partner for emerging
best-of-breed companies seeking market acceleration and a strong
relationship with a leading global publisher. The team is comprised of
experienced investors in the US and European venture capital markets.
Reed Elsevier Group Plc is a world leading publisher and information
provider. It is owned equally by its two parent companies, Reed
Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The parent companies are listed on
the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges, under the following
ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RUK and ENL. In
2004, Reed Elsevier made adjusted profit before taxation of
£1,027 million on turnover of £4,812 million. The group
employs 36,000 people, including approximately 20,000 in North America.
Operating in the scientific, legal, educational and
business-to-business sectors, Reed Elsevier provides high value and
flexible information solutions to professional end users, with
increasing emphasis on internet delivery.
About Mitsui and Co. Ltd.
Mitsui and Co., Ltd. (TSE: 8031) (NASDAQ: MITSY) is one of the largest
trading houses in the world and is active in a wide range of trading
activities, along with the development of energy sources and other
natural resources for various industries. These include export, import,
domestic and offshore transactions in such industrial materials as
steel, non-ferrous metals and chemicals as well as in machinery,
electronic and industrial products and lifestyle-related products,
including foodstuffs, textiles and general merchandise. Mitsui is also
involved in various businesses related to the aforementioned
activities, as well as telecommunications and IT, service businesses
and regional development.
Company information:
Bill McGee
Senior Vice President, Marketing Services
415-281-3113
bill@healthline.com
Press Contact:
Colby Zintl
Healthline Networks
415-281-3110
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