Futuristic Healthcare Concept Forward Shutters

The primary care puzzle remains unsolved.

Forward fold. One year after adding $100M to scale autonomous CarePods, healthcare unicorn Forward has shuttered its clinics.

Launched in 2017 by Big Tech vets, Forward raised $650M+ to productize preventative doctor’s visits while delivering personalized, data-driven treatment plans.

Martyred. Traditional healthcare is underdelivering, but Forward may have been overpromising.

Despite its disruptive vision, the company failed to reach critical mass — with out-of-pocket costs, rumored pod malfunctions, and lack of human touch potentially deterring patients.

Still adjusting to a changing world, consumer distrust in AI-generated healthcare information is increasing, and Forward’s futuristic design didn’t address widespread affordability issues.

Looking ahead: Burning through cash before it could build trust, Forward was forced to close. But, learning from its arc, human-in-the-loop successors could riff on the concept.