Carbon Health
American healthcare company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Carbon Health is an American chain of primary healthcare and urgent care clinics[1][2][3] founded in 2015 in San Francisco that also provides telemedicine.[4][5] In February 2026, Carbon Health filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with plans to eliminate its arranged $100 million to $500 million debt.[6]
- Eren Bali
- Tom Berry
- Greg Burell
- Caesar Djavaherian
| |
| Industry | Primary healthcare, urgent care |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2015 |
| Founders |
|
| Headquarters | San Francisco |
Number of locations | 101 (2022)[citation needed] |
| Total equity | US$3.3 billion (2021)[citation needed] |
Number of employees | 2,309 (2021)[citation needed] |
| Website | carbonhealth |
Carbon Health positions itself as a technology-first provider aiming to meet patients across virtual, in-person, and at-home settings, streamlining doctor-patient workflows and administrative processes[7]
History
Carbon Health was founded in San Francisco in 2015 by Udemy co-founder Eren Bali, engineer Tom Berry, and physician Greg Burell. It began as a software platform and mobile app for medical records, telehealth, doctor-patient messaging, and scheduling.[8] The team developed the platform by opening a private clinic that saw about 750 patients; at the time, their goal was to build software for medical practices.[9][10][11]
In 2017, Eren Bali was introduced to Dr. Caesar Djavaherian, an Iranian-American emergency medicine doctor and owner of Direct Urgent Care, a national chain of urgent care clinics.[12] Djavaherian had experienced problems with electronic health record (EHR) systems, and he decided to pilot the Carbon Health software in his clinics.[13] In 2018, Carbon Health and Direct Urgent Care merged, and Caesar Djavaherian became the company's fourth co-founder.[14][15][16] Because of this merge, Carbon Health now owned 7 brick-and-mortar clinics in the San Francisco Bay Area.[4]
In 2017, Carbon Health created a mobile app to communicate directly with doctors, and an alternative to traditional EHR systems.[13]
In 2019, Carbon Health announced a Series B round of $30 million,[17] followed by a Series B extension of $28M in early 2020 to strengthen its initiatives related to the COVID-19 pandemic.[18] Later in 2020, the company announced a $100M round led by Dragoneer Investment Group,[19] and in 2021, a $350M round led by The Blackstone Group.[12][20]
By April 2021, Carbon Health had 49 physical location medical clinics, including 19 clinics in the San Francisco Bay Area and 8 clinics in Los Angeles.[21][22] By October 2021, Carbon Health had 90 full service medical clinics, located in 14 states within the United States.[23]
In 2023, Carbon Health partnered with CVS Health to pilot a new clinic model offering primary and urgent care services within CVS retail stores. The partnership was part of a broader $100 million investment led by CVS Health's corporate venture arm. [24]
In August 2024, Carbon Health co-founder and CEO Eren Bali stepped down from his role to return to Udemy, the education company he co-founded, as Chief Technology Officer. Bali announced the move on social media, noting that Udemy held a "special place" in his heart. He will remain involved with Carbon Health as executive chairman. Chief Operating Officer Kerem Ozkay was named the new CEO.[25]
In February 2026, Carbon Health filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with plans to eliminate its arranged $100 million to $500 million debt.[26]
COVID-19
In March 2020, Carbon Health partnered with the San Francisco-based online pharmacy Alto Pharmacy to provide oral swab home test kits to patients in California. The tests were not authorized by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [27] but claimed to be authorized for distribution under an Emergency Use Authorization;[28][29] That same week, the FDA suspended the sales and distribution of home testing kits produced by Carbon Health, among others.[30][31]
In April 2020, Carbon Health released an open source, HIPAA-compliant repository of COVID-19 clinical data.[32][33]