Smiles an online dental care startup has announced raising $23 Million in its series A funding from Alpha Wave, Others. In other words, this funding is a global opportunity to expand into other markets such as North Africa and the Middle East.
The funding round was led by Alpha Wave Incubation (Falcon Edge Capital), alongside existing investors Chiratae Ventures and Sequoia India’s Surge.
Furthermore, the list of investors include Angel investors such as
- Lenskart founders Amit Chaudhary and Peyush Bansal
- Mosaic Wellness’ Revant Bhate
- CRED’s Miten Sampat and
- Haptik’s Aakrit Vaish
Smiles was founded by Hitesh and Jatin Kakrani with a focus area on Invisible Aligner treatments. Ever since this treatment surfaced, it is the most preferred technology over traditional braces for smile correction.
Smiles and the dental care revolution
Going by the enormous opportunity in the dental care sector in India, Africa, and abroad, Smile’s technological approach is impressive.
Most importantly creating a comprehensive offline base of dentists and building an aligners business.
The Indian dental care market is highly fragmented to date without any significant technological disruption for decades. However, with increasing in technological awareness, Smiles.ai is set to break the market.
With an increase in disposable incomes and rising millennial aspirations, the dental industry is going through a transition.Â
Hitesh Kakrani, Co-Founder of Smiles.ai said,
“We are leading this change in India by combining dental care operations and technology expertise”.
The managing director of Alpha Wave Incubation, Anirudh Singh said;
“With the use of technology as a key differentiator and driver, Smiles is set to disrupt the market. While maintaining its capital efficiency, it will establish itself as the leader in the market”
In conclusion, the company said India’s dental care industry will be a $15 billion market by 2023 and is growing 20% year-on-year (YoY). However, most customers are largely from offline channels and individual clinics account for most business in the sector.
