Forward, a healthcare startup that raised $400 million to revolutionize primary care with AI-powered "doctor in a box" CarePods, is shutting down effective immediately, according to company announcements and sources close to the matter. The abrupt closure ends its eight-year journey towards tech-driven, affordable healthcare.
Why it matters: Forward aimed to transform the healthcare industry by offering tech-heavy, subscription-based services through staffed clinics and sleek CarePod kiosks deployed in public spaces like malls and gyms. Despite attracting significant investor interest and reaching unicorn status ($1 billion valuation) in 2021, Forward struggled to scale financially, falling short of securing a recent Series F funding round.
The details: All of Forward's nearly 200 employees will lose their jobs, and its app has already gone offline. Forward had built 19 tech-enabled primary care clinics across the U.S. and rolled out AI-based CarePods that automated health check-ups in several cities, including San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
- Customers paid subscription fees for what was pitched as premium, proactive healthcare.
- However, Forward struggled to attract enough subscribers to cover steep operating costs, generating less than $100 million in revenue since its founding.
- The company last raised $100 million in a Series E round in 2023, including debt financing, but ultimately couldn't sustain operations.
Zoom out: Forward is the latest casualty in a healthcare startup landscape increasingly dominated by well-resourced players like Amazon's One Medical. For Forward, even with the backing of top venture funds like Founders Fund and Khosla Ventures, the costs of running clinics and advancing AI-powered solutions were too high to overcome without consistent funding.
What’s next: Forward has committed to helping its members transition to new care providers and will support medical queries via email until mid-December. Remaining funds will be returned to investors, though details are still being worked out. For now, Forward's lofty vision of affordable, AI-driven healthcare will remain unrealized.