dental care
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Singapore-based D2C dental brand Zenyum raises $40M Series B from L Catterton, Sequoia India and other investors
Zenyum, a startup that wants to make cosmetic dentistry more affordable, announced today it has raised a $40 million Series B. This includes $25 million from L Catterton, a private equity firm focused on consumer brands. The round’s other participants were Sequoia Capital India (Zenyum is an alum of its Surge accelerator program), RTP Global, Partech, TNB Aura, Seeds Capital and FEBE Ventures. L Catteron Asia’s head of growth investments, Anjana Sasidharan, will join Zenyum’s board.
This brings Zenyum’s total raised so far to $56 million, including a $13.6 million Series A announced in November 2019. In a press statement, Sasidharan said, “Zenyum’s differentiated business model gives it a strong competitive advantage, and we are excited to partner with the founder management team to help them realize their growth ambitions.” Other dental-related investments in L Catteron’s portfolio include Ideal Image, ClearChoice, dentalcorp, OdontoCompany, Espaçolaser and 98point6.
Founded in 2018, the company’s products now include ZenyumSonic electric toothbrushes; Zenyum Clear, or transparent 3D-printed aligners; and ZenyumClear Plus for more complex teeth realignment cases.
Founder and chief executive officer Julian Artopé told TechCrunch that ZenyumClear aligners can be up to 70% cheaper than other braces, including traditional metal braces, lingual braces and other clear aligners like Invisalign, depending on the condition of a patients’ teeth and what they want to achieve. Zenyum Clear costs $2,400 SGD (about $1,816 USD), while ZenyumClear Plus ranges from $3,300 to $3,900 SGD (about $2,497 to $2,951 USD).
The company is able to reduce the cost of its invisible braces by combining a network of dental partners with a technology stack that allows providers to monitor patients’ progress while reducing the number of clinic visits they need to make.
First, potential customers send a photo of their teeth to Zenyum to determine if ZenyumClear or ZenyumClear Plus will work for them. If so, they have an in-person consultation with a dentists, including an X-ray and 3D scan. This costs between $120 to $170 SGD, which is paid to the clinic. After their invisible braces are ready, the patient returns to the dentist for a fitting. Then dentists can monitor the progress of their patient’s teeth through Zenyum’s app, only asking them to make another in-person visit if necessary.
ZenyumClear is currently available in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Thailand and Taiwan, with more markets planned.
Sequoia India principal Pieter Kemps told TechCrunch, “There are 300M customers in Zenyum’s core markets—Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan—who have increased disposable income for beauty. We believe spend on invisible braces will grow significantly from the current penetration, but what it requires is strong execution on a complex product to become the preferred choice for consumers. That is where Zenyum shines: excellent execution, leading to new products, best-in-class NPS, fast growth, and strong economics. This Series B is a testament to that, and of the belief in the large opportunity down the road.”
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Quip launches toothbrush for kids
Quip, the dental care startup, is releasing a new product aimed toward kids. Similar to the electric toothbrush it makes for adults, the kids’ brush features a timer that pulsates every 30 seconds and automatically turns off after two minutes.
The main differences between the brush for kids and one for adults is the non-slip grip plastic handle, smaller brush head and new colors. Quip for kids costs $25 for a brush head starter set with a flavored toothpaste subscription ($10 every three months) or $30 with a starter set and brush head subscription ($5 every three months).
“If we’re going to fulfill our mission of improving oral health for every age, it’s better to cast those habits and form those habits at an early age,” Quip CEO Simon Enever told TechCrunch. “And build right habits before you’re nine years old.”
Quip began as a subscription-based electric toothbrush service that replaces toothpaste and brush heads, partly because you’re apparently supposed to change your toothbrush every three months. Since its launch, Quip has steadily evolved its offerings by inviting dentists to join the platform to connect with Quip’s consumer subscribers.
“The features dentists were asking for was the same Quip for kids,” Enever said. “Knowing that the timer and pulses would guide basic habits, the biggest thing dentists wanted was getting kids to want to brush their teeth. That would be the win.”
Last May, Quip raised $10 million and acquired dental insurance startup Afora to live inside Quip Labs, the startup’s venture studio. The idea with Labs is to fuel innovation in oral health products, platforms and services. This brush for kids, however, is Quip’s first new product since launch.
That’s thanks to Quip’s $40 million funding round back in November. At the time, Enever told me Quip had a lot of new products and services launches ahead of it. To date, Quip has raised more than $60 million in funding.
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Healthy, well-aligned teeth shouldn’t just be for the wealthy. Candid, a direct-to-consumer teeth alignment company, aims to make straight teeth more accessible and more affordable than braces and Invisalign.