Habitat Health Secures $50M, Names Leadership Team

SAN FRANCISCO—Habitat Health, an integrated health care payer and provider that assists older adults in retaining independence, raised more than $50 million in capital from leading health care investors and announced multiple appointments among its leadership positions, including:

• Matthew Bennett as co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO).
• Carmen Peralta as chief medical officer (CMO).
• Geoff Price as executive chairman of the board. 

Kaiser Permanente and Town Hall Ventures launched Habitat Health to empower older adults to maintain independence and well-being through the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), a community-based medical and social care model. 

Habitat Health has raised more than $50 million in capital from leading health care investors, including Town Hall Ventures, New Enterprise Associates and Kaiser Permanente. The funds raised will be invested in bringing new access points for high-quality care to communities that have been historically underserved and under-supported, the company said. The company is planning to open its first PACE center with Kaiser Permanente in 2025.

“This founding leadership team sets up Habitat Health for delivering high-quality care to Kaiser Permanente members and other eligible patients throughout California and the rest of the country for many years to come,” said Bechara Choucair, executive vice president and chief health officer at Kaiser Permanente and a member of Habitat Health’s board of directors.

Before this role as co-founder and CEO, Bennett held leadership roles across the payer and provider continuum during his 15-year tenure at The Cigna Group. Most recently, Bennett served as senior vice president of Cigna Evernorth’s national portfolio of care delivery businesses, which delivers primary, specialty, behavioral and post-acute care services to more than 26 million patients within clinics, the home and virtually. Before that, he served as president of Evernorth Care Group, a value-based primary and specialty care provider in Arizona.

“Habitat Health has a special opportunity to offer better alternatives for aging Americans who wish to maintain independence in their homes and communities,” said Bennett. “I’m thrilled to lead the company as we build a talented team, operations and culture to deliver on this vision.”

CMO Peralta brings experience in clinical care, academia and technology-enabled health care services in value-based care settings. She was previously the chief clinical officer at Interwell Health, a value-based kidney care management company. Before that, Peralta was the founding CMO at Cricket Health. Additionally, she is a volunteer faculty member and former professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco.

“Dr. Peralta’s experience developing and deploying multidisciplinary models of care for individuals with complex needs, and her unwavering focus on health equity, will be instrumental as we bring innovative PACE solutions to diverse communities across the country,” Bennett said.

Price, named executive chairman of the board, is the co-founder and former chief operating officer (COO) of Oak Street Health, a provider of value-based care for adults on Medicare. 

“Geoff’s experience in value-based primary care and his proven track record of scaling innovative and effective care delivery solutions provides our team with exceptional strategic guidance as we continue to build and scale our national platform,” Bennett said.

Additionally, the company welcomed the following members to the senior leadership team.

• Vinay Mascarenhas, acting COO and senior partner. He previously served as co-founder and chief strategy officer at Landmark Health.
• Robert Fuentes, co-founder and chief strategy officer. Currently, he is on secondment from Town Hall Ventures, where he serves as vice president.
• Mandira Singh, acting chief platform officer and senior partner. Before this, she was the COO for Collective Medical.