Investors continue to pour money into dental startups
Teeth straightening startup Candid has raised another $63.4 million Series B round from Greycroft, Bessemer, e.ventures and others. The new injection of cash brings its total funding to $90 million.
Candid, which 3D prints its FDA-approved aligners, is designed for people who need mild to moderate orthodontic work. The modeling kit costs $95, and then the actual aligners cost $1,900 upfront or $88 per month over two years, while braces can cost up to $7,000 and Invisalign can cost up to $8,000.
In addition to its at-home impression process, Candid enables people to come into a physical office to get their teeth scans completed. Currently, Candid operates 13 brick and mortar locations. By the end of this year, Candid aims to have more than 60 locations across the U.S.
In Candid’s physical locations, customers can get their teeth scanned and order aligners within 30 minutes. The studios, which are operated by Candid’s orthodontists and dental assistants, have attracted new customers, Candid CEO Nick Greenfield told TechCrunch.
“When we launch a market, we see so many people coming in and it opens up a totally different subset of people,” he said,
The physical locations also serve to provide people who bought impression kits online with more information.
“The at-home business and Candid Studio play really synergistically with each other,” Greenfield said.
Since last September, Candid has grown its revenues 4x.
“We’ve basically doubled from a revenue standpoint and doubled again in Q1,” Candid CEO Nick Greenfield told TechCrunch. “That trajectory will continue at least for the next two quarters.”
With the funding, Candid plans to double its headcount from 275 to 550, open additional Candid Studios and develop new products.
“We will be launching a couple of new products within the clear aligner space and possibly outside of it,” Greenfield said. “But more to come on that front.”
Meanwhile, competitor Smile Direct Club is reportedly gearing up for an initial public offering. Following a $380 million investment in October, the startup hit a $3.2 billion valuation. Shortly after, SDC investor and maker of Invisalign, Align Technology, was forced to shut down its retail locations. As a result, Candid is taking over the leases on some of those locations.
“For us, it’s been generally positive and has put us in a position to be really successful,” Greenfield said. “Any time you have a player such as the largest competitor going public, it creates a market for this business in the public market. But it doesn’t really change any of our business plans. Anything that happens outside the walls of our company doesn’t change our plans.”
