OrthoFX is unveiling a new suite of clear dental aligner technologies aided by a $13 million Series A round of funding.
Subscribe to the Crunchbase Daily
The San Francisco-based company has developed a consumer-driven, dentist-delivered orthodontic and teeth-straightening service, as well as a doctor-friendly financial model. OrthoFX CEO Ren Menon, former head of global product management and innovation at Invisalign, started the company three years ago with dental product experts Nichole Garcia and Henry Chan.
SignalFire led the round with participation from Unusual Ventures, ShangBay Capital and Kairos. Including the Series A, the company has raised a total of $17 million, Menon told Crunchbase News. The total includes a $4 million seed round in 2018.
The funding will be invested in research and development, and to build out OrthoFX’s suite of hybrid digital and physical orthodontic services that include the user’s dentist, he said.
“The funding will reinforce our business model, which makes sure doctors aren’t bypassed,” Menon said. “COVID-19 has forced decades of change on the dental industry in a small amount of time. It has made us rethink how to deliver care.”
The OrthoFX treatment program received approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2019, and starts at $2,950. It is generally covered by insurance. The process begins with a video visit with a patient’s dentist to determine if they are a candidate for the treatment. The user will snap photos of their teeth with their phone, and OrthoFX’s proprietary algorithm will show where improvements can be made. To ensure treatment compliance is being done, the company puts sensors on the aligner case and users continue to take photos of their teeth and engage with their dentist.
To help patients who forget to wear their aligners daily, OrthoFX is unveiling a rescue aligner that enables a patient to get back on track within two to three weeks, Menon said.
Meanwhile, the company also created a financial model to help dentists who have been hit hard by the global pandemic, he said. Instead of sending a bill to the dentist who will then get payment from the user, OrthoFX takes on the credit and financing of the user and pays the dentist.
It’s a business innovation that has been appreciated by dentists and has resulted in an increase in new clients–in the past three months, inbound leads have increased by 300 percent, Menon said.
“We want to increase access to care, and with our hybrid model, we can provide remote care seamlessly with a doctor-in-the-loop approach,” he said.
Photo courtesy of OrthoFX
Illustration: Li-Anne Dias
Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the Crunchbase Daily.
67.1K Followers