Eren Bali

Eren Bali
Born1984 (age 41–42)
EducationMiddle East Technical University
Known forUdemy, Carbon Health

Eren Bali (born 1984, Malatya, Turkey) is a Turkish[1][2] engineer and technology entrepreneur of Kurdish[3][4] ethnicity based in the United States. He was the founding CEO of Udemy, a platform and marketplace for massive open online courses (MOOCs), and he is now the founder and CEO of Carbon Health, a primary healthcare franchise based in San Francisco.[3][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]

Early life and education

Eren Bali was born in 1984 to Kurdish[3] parents in a mostly Kurdish populated[12][3] Durulova, an apricot farming village in Malatya in Turkey. His mother was a teacher who taught the first through fifth grades in a one-room schoolhouse.[13][14] His father was also a teacher but he was banned from teaching after the 1980 coup because of his activism.[3]

In 2001, Bali won a silver medal in the International Mathematical Olympiad.[15] The same year, he began his studies at Middle East Technical University, graduating in 2005 with a double major in computer engineering and mathematics.[16]

Career

In 2008 in Turkey, Bali launched a livestream-based learning platform called KnowBand, which didn’t take off;[17] shortly afterward, however, a Silicon Valley–based online dating company called SpeedDate recruited Bali as an engineer.[18][19]

In 2010, Bali co-founded Udemy with Oktay Caglar and Gagan Biyani. With initial investments from Russ Fradin and Keith Rabois, they raised one million dollars in seed financing.[20] Between 2010 and 2014, the company grew to 4 million students and 15,000 teachers. In 2014, Bali stepped down as CEO and became the chairman.[21] The same year, he was named on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list.[22]

Shortly afterward, Bali developed an interest in the healthcare industry when his mother became ill, and he spent some months accompanying her to doctors to get the right diagnosis and treatment.[23] Bali first sought to support healthcare startups as an investor[24] before ultimately deciding to start his own.

In 2015, Bali founded Carbon Health with Tom Berry. In 2016, the founding team expanded to include Pablo Stanley and Greg Burell, MD.[25] In 2018, Carbon Health merged with Direct Urgent Care and added the owner, Caesar Djavaherian as a co-founder.[26]

In August 2024, Bali stepped down as CEO of Carbon Health to return to Udemy as Chief Technology Officer, while remaining executive chairman at Carbon Health; Chief Operating Officer Kerem Ozkay was appointed as his successor.[27]

References

  1. ↑ https://www.founderoo.co/playbooks/eren-bali-udemy-carbon-health
  2. ↑ Fisk, Peter (6 April 2020). "How Turkish entrepreneur Eren Bali created Udemy and Carbon Health". Peter Fisk. Archived from the original on 24 February 2021. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Foster, Tom (August 17, 2021). "How Eren Bali, Founder of Billion-Dollar Companies Udemy and Carbon Health, Wants to Fix American Health Care". Inc. Archived from the original on 17 August 2021. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  4. ↑ Starks, Jessica. "What's up with the ten immigrant unicorn 500 Global invested in?". The Vertical. Archived from the original on 2026-01-14. Retrieved 2026-05-12.
  5. ↑ "Eren Bali, Carbon Health CEO: A Fortt Knox Conversation". CNBC. July 22, 2001. Archived from the original on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  6. ↑ Wilson, Lee; Gruzd, Anatoliy (19 June 2014). "MOOCs – international information and education phenomenon?". Bulletin of the Association for Information Science and Technology. 40 (5): 35–40. doi:10.1002/bult.2014.1720400510.
  7. ↑ Loizos, Connie (March 29, 2017). "Udemy co-founder Eren Bali just raised $6.5 million for his newest startup". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  8. ↑ "Udemy CEO, Eren Bali's Story – From One Room School House in Turkey to $12 Million Series B". Udemy. Archived from the original on 30 July 2015. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  9. ↑ Vander Ark, Tom (10 December 2012). "How a Kid From Turkey Changed Learning". Archived from the original on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  10. ↑ Jennings, Katie. "Meet the Immigrant Entrepreneurs Who Raised $350 Million to Rethink US Primary Care". Forbes. Archived from the original on 25 July 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  11. ↑ "Eren Bali: "Sağlıkta global şirket yaratacağız"". Fast Company (in Turkish). 3 March 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-04-15. Retrieved 2021-07-24.
  12. ↑ Aksüt, Hamza (2012). Aleviler: Türkiye, İran, İrak, Suriye, Bulgaristan : araştırma-inceleme (in Turkish) (5 ed.). Yurt Kitap-Yayın. p. 294.
  13. ↑ "The most precious skill you can learn!: Eren Bali at TEDxBayArea". Youtube. TEDx Talks. Archived from the original on 2021-07-27. Retrieved 2021-07-27.
  14. ↑ Lee, Ellen (19 September 2012). "Startups put new spin on online teaching". SF Gate. Archived from the original on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  15. ↑ "International Mathematical Olympiad". IMO Official. Archived from the original on 17 May 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  16. ↑ Bali, Eren. "LinkedIn: Eren Bali". LinkedIn. Archived from the original on 29 December 2007. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  17. ↑ Hoge, Patrick (January 11, 2013). "Math whiz overcomes failure". BizJournals. Archived from the original on 25 February 2017. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  18. ↑ Pozin, Ilya (June 1, 2012). "Top Immigrant-Owned Startups". Forbes. Archived from the original on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  19. ↑ Dams, Susana (June 17, 2020). "Anyone Can Teach Anything On This Education Site - And That's Why It's Worth Billions". Forbes. Archived from the original on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  20. ↑ "Udemy Raises $1M in Seed Financing". Vator News. August 31, 2010. Archived from the original on 2022-11-25. Retrieved 2021-07-27.
  21. ↑ Kolodny, Lora (April 22, 2014). "Udemy Appoints Dennis Yang CEO; Eren Bali Steps Aside to Lead Product". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 26 November 2017. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  22. ↑ Howard, Caroline (January 6, 2014). "Forbes 30 Under 30 Education - 2014". Forbes. Archived from the original on November 25, 2022. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  23. ↑ Ries, Eric. "Out of the Crisis Podcast: Eren Bali of Carbon on Public Health". Out Of The Crisis Podcast. Archived from the original on 25 May 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  24. ↑ West, Collin; Neelakanti, Nihar (May 1, 2020). "Eren Bali, CEO of Carbon Health, on The Future of Healthcare". Archived from the original on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  25. ↑ "Fireside Chat with Eren Bali, CEO and Co-Founder of Carbon Health". YouTube. MIT Enterprise Forum of NYC. Archived from the original on 2022-11-25. Retrieved 2021-07-27.
  26. ↑ Muoio, Dave (October 30, 2018). "Carbon Health merges with Direct Urgent Care, pairs mobile patient app with physical care services". Mobi Health News. Archived from the original on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  27. ↑ Ravindranath, Mohana (2024-08-20). "Carbon Health founder steps back from top role, Kaiser hospitals roll out AI scribe". STAT. Retrieved 2025-06-23.
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