San Francisco, Jun 3 (IANS): US-based healthcare company offering virtual care Carbon Health has laid off 250 people, or 8 per cent of its workforce, amid gloomy market conditions.

Combining smart technology with modern clinics, Carbon Health aims to deliver a seamless experience -- with virtual and in-person appointments, primary care, urgent care, and mental healthcare.

"We announced the difficult decision to part ways with about 250 of our teammates at Carbon Health, representing approximately 8 per cent of our global workforce," said Eren Bali, CEO of Carbon Health.

"Decisions like this are excruciating. However, given myriad external factors including the capital markets, I believe this decision is in the best interest of our patients, customers, partners, investors, and, ultimately, our team," Bali said in a statement.

The company said it prioritised 1:1 conversations with every impacted colleague as well as offered generous separation packages, extended health care coverage, removed equity cliffs for options, allowed employees to keep their laptops, and outplacement support.

"While our core business grew 4x in 2021 and will double again in 2022, we -- like most healthcare providers -- had significant revenue from COVID-specific lines of business," said Bali.

"As COVID is entering a new phase, we are winding down some of those COVID-specific lines of business and that, unfortunately, means parting ways with some colleagues," the CEO added.

Carbon Health raised over $500 million in venture-backed investments, as per Crunchbase. The most recent fund-raise was a $350 million Series D round in July 2021, led by Blackstone Group, that took the company's valuation to $3.3 billion.

As VC money disappears amid economic slowdown, tech startups have laid off over 20,000 employees the world over since April, while more than 8,000 employees have lost jobs at the Indian startups led by edtech platforms.

The situation is set to get worse with recession looming and funding drying up.