Atlanta-based digital health company Sharecare has acquired Window Channel Network (WCN), a distributor of relaxation and wellness videos focused on improving viewers’ mental health. All WCN video content — 30,000 hours of which are viewed each day across the globe — will be labeled with the Sharecare brand.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. WCN founders Jim Wilmer and Mark Knight will join Sharecare.
WCN videos range from background scenery views for relaxation to guided yoga and meditation instruction to low-light videos especially designed to encourage sleep. The content is available through Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, the App Store, Google Play and Amazon Prime; WCN is the exclusive provider of ambient video for Amazon Prime.
“Our acquisition of Window Channel Network builds on our commitment to bring the essential elements of wellness, illness and lifestyle together in one platform on behalf of the consumer,” Sharecare chairman and CEO Jeff Arnold said in a statement.
“Bottom line, Window Channel Network presented an opportunity of quality and scale in perfect proportion… and, now, by integrating their videos into Sharecare’s platform in a myriad of ways, we can help provide context to their content, empowering those who may or may not be familiar with mindfulness practices with an incredibly approachable and relevant way to make that part of their daily health journey, all on their smartphone,” says Jen Martin Hall, the company’s SVP of Corporate Communications..
Sharecare’s web-based platform and app offers users a suite of personalized and predictive health solutions. That includes a diagnosis tool, AskMD, personalized health content on a range of physical and mental health topics, health guides, a Find A Doctor feature, and more. Users are onboarded by completing the company’s proprietary health assessment, the RealAge Test.
That’s also where they collect much of their consumer health data. The company says that by combining that data — over 5 billion individual data points, gleaned from the 42 million users that have taken the test — with voice analysis technology and virtual reality tools garnered from previous acquisitions, they’ll be better able to tailor on-demand health content to users’ specific needs.
WCN’s videos will be directly accessible to Sharecare users as soon as this fall. In the past year, three million Sharecare users have watched 14.8 million originally-produced videos on the platform — a total of over 125,000 hours and a statistic that Martin expects will be heavily augmented with this acquisition.
Simultaneous to the acquisition, the company also announced a strategic investment of $20 million from Wells Fargo Strategic Capital. This brings the company’s total funding to $380 million, with investors including Claritas Capital, Wellington Management and Summit Partners.
Sharecare has also brought in a suite of strategic investors, many of whom are clients. Those include health systems HCA and Trinity Health; CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield; the Heritage Healthcare Innovation Fund; and Swiss Re. The nine-year-old company achieved profitability for the first time this year.
“At Wells Fargo, we have been impressed with not only Sharecare’s rapid growth, scale and strategic position in digital health but also the breadth of capabilities available through its platform – from disease management protocols to health risk assessments and relevant, interesting content to programs that elevate the wellness of entire communities,” said Wells Fargo Managing Director John Ryan in a statement.
