HealthTech Start-Up Raises $50mil Series A to Scale Across UK and Europe
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| Spain’s Impress, the new generation of leading orthodontic chains in Europe, has raised a $50 million Series A round. This marks the biggest Series A round in Southern Europe. |
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The funding will be put towards further international expansion across Europe and where Impress already has a presence: Spain, Italy, Portugal, UK, and France. The investment will further accelerate the digitalisation of the orthodontic experience, with the ultimate goal of creating a fully-fledged doctor-led platform that consistently delivers high quality treatment and customer satisfaction. |
| Impress has reinvented the new generation of orthodontic chains model by offering first-in-class medical treatments directly to consumers. Before Impress, consumers could only access cosmetic teeth alignment treatments or expensive orthodontic medical treatments in conventional clinics. Impress is leading in this new space by offering medically complex treatments at affordable prices to patients and by digitalising the whole process. |
Impress co-founder Diliara Lupenko comments:“We didn’t copy what other companies in the space were doing and approached the market from a different angle from the get-go. We doubled down on the doctor-led digital model which brought us way better conversion rates and treatment quality even though on paper it looked complex in the beginning. It’s still very complex but we were able to crack it and scale exponentially.” |
| The company's passion lies not only with quality of treatments but also with first-class customer experience. Its first flagship clinic operations, opened in Barcelona, was recognised as Healthcare Center of the Year 2020 by Frame Awards, and each flagship clinic built ever since is a piece of art and thoughtful design, rather than a place where patients would fear the dentist. |
| Impress was founded in 2019 in Barcelona by renowned orthodontist Dr Khaled Kasem and serial entrepreneurs Diliara and Vladimir Lupenko, with the idea of combining the best of orthodontic tradition with the most innovative technology in the sector. From the very beginning, the vision of the Impress founders was to introduce a different business model with a strong focus on medical experience and digitalisation. The company is transforming the oral healthcare industry by developing its own chain of orthodontic clinics, which are characterised by their disruptive design and modern patient experience. The founders decided to build a medical company with the personal touch of in-house orthodontists, face-to-face care, and unique clinical expertise, where the proper implementation of business processes and digitalisation are at the core. |
| Since launch, the company has grown exponentially. In under two years, Impress became the leading European orthodontic player and scaled to 75 clinics in Spain, Italy, UK, France and Portugal and has been recognised as one of the fastest growing health-tech companies in Europe in 2020. |
A P A Bindusaran from CareCapital comments:“Impress has reinvented the orthodontics treatment delivery model by offering cost effective yet uncompromised orthodontic care through its fast expanding modern clinic network in combination with a digitally led approach. We were deeply encouraged by the commitment of Impress to provide X ray, 3D scans and in-person dental assessment by a specialist to evaluate root, nerve and oral health before start of treatment. In addition, it provides unparalleled access to in-house orthodontic specialists through both convenient digital channels and its state-of-the-art clinics. This standout experience and care provided by Impress aligns with the investment values of CareCapital and positions Impress to be the leading Patient Brand and Orthodontic Network of choice.” |
Andreas Nemeth, Managing Partner of UNIQA Ventures GmbH comments:“Impress's customer-centric focus as well as its demonstrated ability to blitzscale attracted us to the business. Co-founder Vladimir Lupenko and his team leverage technology to create a seamless customer journey for invisible orthodontics and optimised their cost structure in a unique way using software to automate key parts of the value chain. This combination is powerful, enabling Impress to find the right customers and offer them a better experience, at a much lower price. We are therefore delighted and proud to pursue the path towards an ecosystem around dental care together.” |
Impress, the revolution in invisible orthodontics |
| Technology is one of the main pillars of Impress. The company offers medical treatment through a totally innovative experience, using the latest technology in the sector to make invisible orthodontic treatments more precise, quicker and adapted to the lives of patients. It also offers one of a kind digital medical follow up throughout the treatment with 7-day access to customer support and a mobile app to evaluate the treatment progression monitored by medical staff. |
| Committed to not compromising on health or quality, Impress hires only qualified dentists and orthodontists and goes beyond 3D scans. Its orthodontists always perform and study panoramic X-rays to check nerve and bone health, a necessary test when prioritising the patient's health and which not all companies take into account before starting orthodontic treatment. |
| In the medical team at Impress, the professionals are experts in orthodontics and thanks to their knowledge of tooth movement and experience treating thousands of cases, they are able to treat even complex cases related to bite correction and even cases in adolescents with both invisible orthodontics and braces at all ages. |
| When the digital medical team sees the need for a visit with a doctor, the team will book in-clinic visits. |
Dr Khaled Kasem, Chief orthodontist and co-founder of Impress comments:“Digitalisation helps to better monitor the treatment, offers a safe experience during the COVID-19 outbreak and better customer satisfaction, but is never a substitute for a necessary medical visit. Patient health comes first and we are committed to it.” |
| Despite the lasting effects of COVID-19, Impress became the fastest growing healthtech company in Europe in 2020. Over the past 15 months, its team has grown 12-fold from 25 to 300 people, including 150 medical staff. During the same period, Impress showed 13x sales growth. Today, Impress is approaching €50 million in annual run-rate and is projected to grow to €150 million of revenue in 12 months. |
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