Karuna acquired by Commure

Karuna’s next chapter has begun! On New Year’s Eve, Commure acquired our company and recruited our team to integrate Karuna’s customers, tech, and insights. 

Three years ago, we committed to giving every patient a guide in the healthcare system. Since then, Karuna has had the privilege of supporting tens of thousands of patients through providers like Cityblock Health, The Camden Coalition, and Anthem. 

We’re thrilled to continue our work at Commure. Commure makes it easy to build user-friendly healthcare apps with their secure and interoperable developer platform. You can learn more about Commure’s mission here.

To our Karuna team, current and former—especially Josh, Antares, and Amy—thank you for your dedication, empathy, and creativity. To our investors and advisors, thank you for your constant support and candid guidance. And to everyone else who ran with us—through each pivot, fundraise, humbling lesson, muted Webex, and mercifully only one pandemic—thank you for your selfless dedication to helping us evolve.

Every healthcare journey is unique. But the indignity of being made to feel powerless, anonymous, and alone is something every patient and caregiver can relate to. 

My own journey started back in South Africa, in high school. I was suddenly overwhelmed by abdominal pain, lost my ability to eat, and fell into depression. A year later, I found myself ten thousand miles from home, navigating the healthcare system alone in the United States.  

Those experiences made me at once angry and hopeful: Angry at a perversely-incentivized system that undermines the relationship between patient and caregiver. Hopeful that with the right mix of incentives, technology, and empathy, building a more compassionate healthcare system is not just possible, but achievable. 

We’ve only scratched the surface at Karuna, but the frontline workers and healthcare leaders we’ve had the opportunity to learn from, and especially the patients we’ve helped, are proof that a better future is possible. 

I’m on a sabbatical right now, but once I’ve caught up on sleep (and Slack notifications no longer induce terror), I’m excited to carry forward lessons learned and continue building towards that better future.