NEWTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Virtudent, the leading provider of mobile dental clinics and tele-dentistry services for employers, announced today that it has raised an $8 million Series A financing. Virtudent will use the funds to continue scaling its innovative enterprise quality mobile dental care and tele-dentistry services offering, including expansion into new geographies beyond its current New England markets. The funding round was led by Boston-based .406 Ventures with participation from SpringRock Ventures and existing investor The Sparta Group, LLC, the venture office of Desh Deshpande.
In an era in which technology and on-demand services are critical for striking a work-life balance, the American Dental Association reports that 33% of patients currently avoid visiting their dentist due to inconvenience. Cost barriers also continue to rise for Americans looking to obtain dental care and the decision to forego routine preventive visits impacts overall health downstream, leading to 12-15% higher medical costs on average.
To seamlessly fit into patients’ lives, Virtudent works with employers to bring a full dental clinic and tele-dentistry offering onsite at no cost to the employer. A highly-trained Virtudent dental hygienist operating under the supervision of a dentist brings the basic preventive dental visit right on site using innovative portable kits the size of a suitcase. Standard appointments deliver an advanced cleaning and a comprehensive oral exam, including a full oral health risk assessment to determine the patient’s risk of oral cancer, gum disease, and cavities as well as digital dental x-rays and intraoral photographs, which are reviewed remotely by a team of highly-qualified dentists. After reviewing a patient’s case, Virtudent’s dentist may determine that additional treatment is necessary and will submit a referral. A member of Virtudent’s team will then work with the patient to help find a trusted local dentist that is in-network with their insurance. All dental records are available to the patient’s selected provider to ensure proper continuation of care.
“As the first commercial tele-dentistry practice in the US, Virtudent is committed to using technology to make the traditional dental visit vastly more accessible, convenient, and patient-centric. Our mission is to improve and innovate on the oral healthcare delivery system so that high quality dental care is not a luxury, but a standard,” said Dr. Hitesh Tolani, D.M.D., Virtudent’s Founder and CEO. “We are thrilled to partner with innovative companies like Wayfair, Kronos, LogMeIn, and athenahealth to eliminate the logistical impediments that can often prevent their employees from getting world-class oral health, which is also a key part of their overall health and wellness. .406 Venture’s investment in Virtudent will allow us to expand our services, reach more people, and ultimately improve oral healthcare nationally.”
“While technology is being used effectively in many areas of medical care delivery, it is surprising how little the typical dentist visit has changed over the past 200 years. In today’s time starved world, it is hard to accept that the average dentist visit still takes an average of four hours, including travel and wait time. In contrast, Virtudent’s innovative tele-dentistry offering can be completed in 45 minutes flat. Not only is this convenient for busy patients, but it also recaptures patients who have not had care in years – the average Virtudent patient hasn’t been to the dentist in almost six years,” commented Liam Donohue, .406 Venture’s Managing Partner who will also be joining Virtudent’s Board of Directors. “We are excited to partner with Virtudent as the company is by far the best positioned to make high quality oral healthcare a standard, not a luxury.”
In addition to its commercial activities, through a partnership with Northeast Delta Dental, Virtudent provides high quality tele-dental care to children at the Boys and Girls Clubs of New Hampshire. So far, the program has served 4,200 children, many of whom had never been to the dentist before. To learn more about Virtudent’s giving back program visit, www.myvirtudent.com/about/giving-back/
About Virtudent
Headquartered in Newton, Virtudent is changing the face of dental healthcare. Our company is leveraging telehealth technologies and a new scalable delivery model to bring high-quality dental care to patients who are otherwise foregoing their routine dental visits. No more taking off work or missing school. By coupling our state-of-the-art pop-up dental clinics with telehealth technologies, we bring the dental visit right on-site. Our teledentistry care delivery platform not only leverages the best dentists in the country, but also separates the diagnosing provider from the treatment provider in order to ensure our patients receive non-biased treatment plans that are 100% formulated to promote prevention, wellness and health. We aim to make a traditionally headache-inducing dental experience vastly more cool, convenient, transparent and most importantly – all about the patient! To learn more about Virtudent visit, www.myvirtudent.com.
About 406 Ventures
.406 Ventures is a Boston-based early stage venture capital firm investing in healthcare and enterprise technology companies founded by visionary entrepreneurs. .406 Ventures was founded in 2006 and has over $650M under management across four funds. The firm leads, or co-leads, first institutional investment rounds in market-changing companies. .406 Ventures’ healthcare theses focus on systems, technologies, and services that improve clinical delivery, with investments in companies such as Iora Health, AbleTo, Axial Healthcare, and Redox. Learn more at 406ventures.com and here.