SMILE Health Adds Leading Industry Partners; $1M in Available Capital for Early-Stage Oral Health Startups

CareQuest Innovation Partners and MATTER today announce the addition of leading industry partners and more than $1 million in available investment capital to SMILE Health, a first-of-its-kind program to identify and accelerate early-stage startups at the intersection of oral health improvement and health equity advancement.

“The unprecedented response to SMILE Health speaks to both the importance of our challenge — creating a more accessible, equitable, and integrated oral health system for everyone — and the very real innovation gap that currently exists in oral health,” said Mariya Filipova, chief innovation officer of CareQuest Innovation Partners. “Partners are joining us from all corners of the health care ecosystem. Their participation creates an unparalleled platform to scale validated solutions that will transform oral health for those who need them the most.”

“The dental entrepreneur and investment community is eager to rally behind SMILE Health because the opportunities to advance innovation in oral health systems change have been so few and far between,” said Jeremy Krell, DMD, MBA, managing partner at Revere Partners. “There is high adoption of oral technology within the high-growth DSO sector in an effort to achieve true growth and optimize patient outcomes.”

Impact Partners will provide SMILE Health startups with the opportunity to test and refine solutions, business models, and product market fit in real-world settings by designing and steering 4–6-week validation studies. They’ll also have early access to the full pipeline of SMILE Health solutions and the opportunity to deploy them first.

“As a dental benefits administrator serving more than 33 million people nationwide, the majority of whom are low-income children and families enrolled in Medicaid, we see firsthand – and at scale – the obstacles people face in accessing high quality preventive dental care,” said Steve Pollock, president and CEO of DentaQuest. “SMILE Health is unique in its approach to rapidly validate and deploy solutions designed to address these obstacles. Given DentaQuest’s mission to improve the oral health of all, we are eager to support entrepreneurs working toward a more equitable, healthier future.”

Scale Partners will serve as go-to-market partners, providing participating startups with access to potential customers. Importantly, Scale Partners commit to making capital available to SMILE Health startups that meet their individual investment criteria. To date, Scale Partners and CareQuest Innovation Partners have collectively earmarked $1M in available funding for participating startups that meet specific funding criteria.

In addition to Impact and Scale Partners, SMILE Health has also added more than 100 reviewers, mentors, and faculty to support startups throughout the 13-week program.