PlusDental, German-born telemedicine startup focused on dentistry, has landed a €32 million funding round led by Hong Kong-based Ping An Global Voyager Fund. Existing investors HV Holtzbrinck Ventures and Lakestar also participated in the round, and so did Christian Wegner, founder of the Berlin-based “re-commerce” platform Momox.
Founded in 2017 and formerly known as Sunshine Smile, PlusDental has built its business around selling sets of transparent splints for teeth straightening. Initially, it had only offered its customers to make an imprint of their teeth at home, send it back, and receive a tailor-made set of splints.
In 2019, however, the firm made a U-turn and started referring customers to partner dental practices to have their oral cavity scanned. Currently, the company has more than 70 partners across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Great Britain, and Spain.
PlusDental argued that the change was prompted by the customers' feedback, but Gruenderszene suggested that criticism from dentists could've been the real reason. One way or the other, the startup, which employs some 200 people, still does all check-ups following the first appointment remotely. The company's app also reminds the patients when it's time to change the splint or upload a control photo of their mouth for a dentist to check.
The funding from Ping An will be used to “accelerate growth, drive further international expansion and to continuously broaden range of dental treatments,” the startup stated in a press release.
"Next, we want to add artificial dentures, which we can already manufacture in our dental laboratory," PlusDental's CEO Peter Baumgart told Handelsblatt.
In addition to that, Ping An brings to the table its extensive experience in the field of telemedicine. Its healthtech platform, Ping An Good Doctor, operates in China and has more than 60 million monthly active users. In February, the platform hit an astonishing 1.11 billion visits due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
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