Medschool.com Secures $26 Million in Second Round Funding
SANTA MONICA, Calif.– Medschool.com, a leading e-learning company offering high-quality training and education solutions for healthcare organizations and professionals worldwide, today announced the closing of its $26 million second round of financing.
The financing was led by Patricof & Co. Ventures Inc., a leading international private equity investment firm that together with its international affiliates, Apax Partners, manages more than $7 billion on behalf of its investors. The consortium includes several leading healthcare and e-learning investors, most notably Delphi Ventures, GE Equity and Leeds Equity Partners.
To date, Medschool.com has raised more than $38 million to fund its technology development, content acquisition and business expansion.
Medschool.com also announced the addition of George Jenkins, general partner of Patricof & Co. Ventures, and Don Lothrop, managing partner, Delphi Ventures, to its board of directors. Elliot Royce, senior vice president of GE Equity, the private equity arm of General Electric (NYSE:GE – news), will also join the board as an observer.
“Medschool.com understands the power of engaging, multimedia e-learning solutions and, more importantly, how they can be used to achieve healthcare business objectives,” said Jenkins. “We are excitedabout the Medschool.com opportunity, and we believe that the company will become the healthcare market leader in the burgeoning e-learning industry.”
Founded in 1999, Medschool.com provides an innovative Internet-based e-learning platform that delivers compelling, rich media learning programs for healthcare organizations that need to educate and train employees, healthcare providers and health consumers.
Medschool.com’s innovative e-learning solutions are actively being deployed by a number of leading pharmaceutical, medical device, healthcare communications and healthcare risk management companies for corporate training and professional medical education.
“The healthcare sector, like the rest of the industry in general, has realized that e-learning can help them transform their training and educational programs,” said Lothrop. “As healthcare investors, we are pleased to be joining experienced e-learning investors such as Patricof, GE Equity and Leeds Equity in supporting Medschool.com’s vision and growth.”
“Closing this round, under current market conditions, is a clear validation of our business model and a strong vote of confidence for the Medschool.com team and product as we continue to service the $6 billion healthcare education and training market,” added Dr. Vikas Bhushan, CEO and co-founder of Medschool.com. “We feel fortunate to partner with such a pre-eminent group of investors who have catalyzed the success of many healthcare and e-learning ventures.”
About Medschool.com
Medschool.com (www.medschool.com) is a leading e-learning company bringing high-quality online training and education solutions to healthcare organizations and professionals worldwide. Medschool.com offers an Internet-based e-learning platform that delivers engaging multimedia-rich learning programs.
The company is supported by key academic advisors at premier institutions, including Yale, Oxford, Cambridge and UC San Francisco, as well as leading experts in the field of e-learning.
Medschool.com’s innovative e-learning solutions have already been deployed by a number of leading pharmaceutical, medical device, healthcare communications and healthcare risk management companies for corporate training and professional medical education. The company has offices in Los Angeles.
About Patricof & Co. Ventures Inc.
Patricof & Co. Ventures Inc., U.S. member of Apax Partners, is a global private investment firm with offices in New York, Philadelphia, Palo Alto, London, Leeds, Dublin, Paris, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Tel-Aviv, Tokyo and Zurich. Its team of more than 130 investment professionals manages more than $7.0 billion worldwide for leading institutional investors.
The firm recently closed on its sixth U.S. institutional fund, Apax Excelsior VI, which was oversubscribed at $1.1 billion. With more than 30 years of direct investing experience, Patricof & Co. Ventures provides long-term, equity financing to build growth companies in a wide range of industries including B-to-B e-commerce, business services, information technology, telecommunications, healthcare, consumer and retail.
About Delphi Ventures
Delphi Ventures is a private venture capital firm providing equity financing and supportive business expertise to young biomedical and healthcare companies with the goal of contributing added value to the companies they fund by serving as active investors. Delphi’s e-health investments include TriZetto, Neoforma, Avicenna and HealthCentral.
About GE Equity
GE Equity (www.geequity.com), a subsidiary of GE Capital, is the private equity arm of General Electric (NYSE:GE – news). GE Capital, with assets of more than $345 billion, is a global, diversified, financial services company with 28 specialized businesses.
GE is a diversified services, technology and manufacturing company with operations worldwide. GE Equity’s e-learning investments include Cognitive Arts, DigitalThink, Docent, Imparta, Interwise, KnowledgePlanet, Pensare, Plateau Systems, NextEd and Wide Learning.
About Leeds Equity Partners
Leeds Equity Partners is a New York-based private equity firm whose most recent fund, Leeds Equity Partners III, is the largest private equity fund in the United States focused on investments in the for-profit education and training industry.
The fund’s advisory board is chaired by former Massachusetts Governor William F. Weld and includes former U.S. Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander and former White House Chief of Staff Thomas “Mack” McLarty. Leeds’ current portfolio of companies in the education and training sectors includes Quisic (formerly University Access), Cognitive Arts, Shopforschool Inc., InterWise Ltd. and DataMark Systems.
Contact Information:
Medschool.com, Santa Monica
Amanda Seymour, 310/899-9000
amanda.seymour@medschool.com
Greenlief Communications
Jennifer Greenlief, 714/964-1668
greenliefcomm@socal.rr.com
