(Healthline is the fourth largest consumer health information site in the U.S.)

San Francisco-based Healthline Media received $95 million in funding from Summit Partners to compete with other consumer health information sites like WebMD. The funding will be used to invest in content development and social-media programs as well as launch “new media types, platforms and adjacent categories.”

Currently, Healthline manages 21 online chronic disease communities that amass more than 421,000 patient influencers. It has the largest number of patient influencers in the US, said Healthline’s former general manager and newly appointed CEO David Kopp.

“Our patient influencers are involved in the promotion of our content,” said Kopp. “When we release content, they pass it around and that is valuable to both patients and our advertising partners who want to associate their brands with patients.”

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Video will be a key part of the company’s aim to grow its content. “Video is a powerful medium that can educate and engage consumers,” said Kopp. “It’s content that is valuable to our users and our advertising partners.”  

The company also announced that Healthline Media will operate as an independent company, separate from the Healthline Networks umbrella.

“After launching the Talix business earlier this year, we sought an investor to separately capitalize Healthline Media, enabling David and his team to pursue a more rapid growth rate and achieve their vision of becoming the leading source of high quality consumer healthcare information on the internet,” Healthline Networks CEO Dean Stephens said in a news release.

Launched in 2006, Healthline.com is the fourth largest health information source. It has 22 million monthly US-based users and 40 million monthly global visitors. According to Comscore, WebMD is the leading consumer health information site, followed by Mayo Clinic and Drugs.com.

See also: Mobile carries WebMD forward

“Healthline has partnerships with Drugs.com and Livestrong, which is the fifth largest consumer health information site,” said Kopp. “We grew about 70% and are the fastest growing site [among consumer health information sites]. Our competitors are relatively flat.”

Summit Partners also said that its managing director Dr. Craig Frances will join Healthline’s board of directors.