The $250m Peacock Equity Fund has reinvested in Healthline Networks as part of a $14m series C round following the portfolio company’s rapid growth in signing up partners.
With GE Capital’s media communications and entertainment business in the joint venture, NBC Universal had started the Peacock fund in 2007 and, according to the San Francisco Business Times, invested $2.5m as part of Healthline’s series C that closed in April.
The majority of the C round came from Investor Growth Capital, the $1bn venture arm of Sweden’s Wallenberg family-backed listed investment vehicle, which provided $10.5m, according to the San Francisco newspaper. The remainder of the money came from Reed Elsevier Ventures, the 2000-vintage venture arm of its two parents, UK-listed Reed Elsevier PLC and Netherlands-listed Reed Elsevier NV, the paper added.
The Peacock fund managed by Tom Byrne had previously led Healthline’s $21m series B round in July 2007, with support from Reed Elsevier Ventures and media company peer US News & World Report, a weekly national news magazine founded in 1933; healthcare corporate venturers Aetna Ventures and Kaiser Permanente Ventures; and venture capital firms Vantage Point Venture Partners, JHK Investments and Mitsui. The B round was one of the Peacock fund’s first investments after its formation in April that year and immediately saw NBC Universal’s iVillage Total Health sign a partnership with Healthline to power part of its services.
Corporate venturing, therefore, gave NBC a two-year headstart over ABC, which in March said it had signed a collaboration with Healthline to boost its ABCNEWS.com/Health site.
In 2006 Healthline had raised $14m in a series A round so West Shell III, the company’s chairman and chief executive, could used the money to build a proprietary search engine for US healthcare providers.
The company’s software now powers services for more than 40 websites and portals and just before closing its series C round, Healthline also signed a partnership with Yahoo!, which is the third most visited internet health destination with more than 11 million unique users each month.
Healthline then hired David Kopp, previously senior director of advertising products at Yahoo!, for a newly created position of senior vice president of network and advertising services.