Carenet Health, a San Antonio, Texas company that runs patient engagement and care navigation services for health insurers and providers, said on October 15, 2026 that it had acquired Invene, a consulting firm that builds AI and data systems exclusively for healthcare organisations. Terms were not disclosed.
Invene's founder, James Griffin, its staff and its nationwide network of independent technical consultants and engineers joined Carenet immediately. The business will operate as "Invene, a Carenet Health company", with Griffin as president, and will keep working for healthcare organisations that are not Carenet clients. Carenet said Invene's clients would keep the same team, projects and contacts.
The deal is Carenet's 12th acquisition in nine years and its second in a week. Earlier the same week it announced the purchase of Orbita, a maker of AI tools for patient engagement.
What Invene built
Invene works with health insurers, hospitals and clinics, value-based care organisations, electronic health record vendors and health technology companies. It helps clients decide which AI and technology projects are worth building, modernises their data platforms and integrations, including the FHIR, HL7 and X12 EDI standards used to exchange health data, and designs AI agents, predictive analytics and applications that comply with US health privacy rules. It also provides interim chief technology and chief information officers.
Carenet's announcement said Invene's team has launched more than 400 products reaching more than 1 billion users and won more than 30 innovation awards, and that the firm appeared on the Inc. 5000 list of fast-growing private companies in 2025 and 2026. Its case studies include automating data pipelines for revenue cycle company FinThrive that removed more than 20,000 hours of manual work, and placing an interim technology chief at a value-based care company who found a $20 million cost gap within 12 weeks.
Invene's team works remotely across the United States from hub cities including Dallas, Boston, Nashville and Tampa, according to the announcement. The company did not disclose its headcount.
“We built Invene to solve the hardest technology problems in healthcare. Carenet deepens our ability to do this end-to-end, with more organizations.”
The founder
Griffin earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2018, the year he founded Invene, according to a profile published by the university. He first worked on an AI product for planning university degrees, then shut it down to concentrate on consulting. The university describes Invene as fully bootstrapped and cash-flow positive, meaning it grew without venture capital.
A grant from the McKinney Economic Development Corporation's innovation fund helped him move the company out of UT Dallas's Venture Development Center, the profile says. Griffin has been named to the Forbes Next 1000 list and to the North Texas Inno 25 Under 25.
Why Carenet is buying
Carenet has operated for more than 20 years. It combines its AI-based engagement software, which it calls Intelligent Engagement, with clinical and non-clinical teams working at scale for its clients. It said Invene adds strategy, product and engineering skills to design, build and connect new technology, so that one partner can take a project from idea to production.
Christopher Rogers, Carenet's president, said healthcare companies want to use AI responsibly and profitably with a partner that can plan, build and run it, and that Invene had done that for many large healthcare organisations. Carenet's announcement argued that as health companies move AI from pilots into production, the hard part is rarely the model itself but the data, the fit with daily work and the operating model around it.
John Erwin, Carenet's chief executive, said the company was deliberate about what it builds, what it acquires and who it partners with.
A string of deals
Carenet's recent acquisitions include Orbita and Response, formerly Response BPO, in 2026; Launch, formerly Balto Health, in 2025; and Health Dialog in 2024.
Griffin said he built Invene to solve the hardest technology problems in healthcare, and that Carenet would let the firm do that from start to finish for more organisations.
