What You Ought to Know:
– CareQuest Innovation Partners, an organization devoted to enhancing general well being via oral well being, in partnership with MATTER, a premier healthcare incubator and innovation hub introduced the eight rising startups chosen for the fourth annual SMILE Well being program. This marks the most important cohort to this point, reflecting a rising urgency to help innovation in oral well being, significantly given current considerations round fluoride insurance policies and protracted underfunding within the sector.
– Chosen from a formidable pool of candidates spanning 15 international locations and 42 U.S. states, these startups align with SMILE Well being’s core focus areas: advancing accessible, equitable, and built-in well being; partaking folks of their oral well being; and connecting persistent care with oral well being. The 2025 cohort consists of Feno, Firstgrin, KiDDY CAPS, Social Cascade, Occasions Well being, Toothapps, Willo, and Xploro.
Addressing Essential Gaps in Oral Well being Care
The urgency of preventive oral well being care has by no means been larger, particularly for kids and low-income households, with fluoride bans throughout a number of states elevating considerations for suppliers and specialists. This 12 months’s cohort strongly displays this want, with many corporations concentrating on pediatric oral well being care innovation and entry.
Regardless of enterprise capital funding for oral well being reaching over $400 million in 2024, it nonetheless represents a small fraction of general healthcare funding. This underfunding is especially regarding on condition that oral ailments have an effect on 3.5 billion folks globally annually, and annual dental care spending is projected to exceed $430 billion by 2030. The SMILE Well being program goals to bridge this hole by connecting progressive startups with a rising community of companions and traders, accelerating options that improve entry, fairness, and medical-dental integration, whereas lowering the societal and financial burdens of poor oral well being.
“With federal insurance policies for oral well being care underneath menace, there’s an pressing must help innovation that expands entry and fairness,” stated Katie D’Amico, vp of development and innovation at CareQuest Innovation Companions. “Backing startups on the forefront of this work is likely one of the handiest methods to make sure communities get the care they want”.
Accelerator Program
The chosen startups will take part in a four-month, semi-virtual accelerator program designed to validate their options. Throughout this era, they are going to be matched with mission-aligned {industry} companions from a rising checklist that features Apple Tree Dental, Cigna Healthcare, Colgate–Palmolive Firm, Delta Dental of Massachusetts, Delta Dental of Washington, Dental Community of America, Glidewell, Heartland Dental, Henry Schein, PDS Well being, and Solar Life Dental (together with DentaQuest). Investor companions like 7wire Ventures, Aphelion Capital, Dental Innovation Alliance, Gilde Healthcare Companions, Revere Companions, Seae Ventures, SpringRock Ventures, and Waterline Ventures are additionally concerned.
Every startup will obtain a stipend, entry to multidisciplinary healthcare specialists, devoted mentors, a curated curriculum, and key enterprise insights. New this 12 months, the cohort may also have entry to CareQuest’s new Startup Information Hub, which affords self-service capabilities to assist innovators validate and scale their options sooner. Considerably, no fairness is required from the startups to take part.
The SMILE Well being program culminates with “Reveal Day” at MATTER headquarters on October 7–8, 2025, and on the international HLTH convention on October 19–22, 2025. These occasions will function curated, one-on-one conversations between cohort members and {industry} leaders. Following the accelerator, startups will retain entry to assets from each MATTER and CareQuest Innovation Companions and may apply for CareQuest Innovation Companions’ ACCELERATE program for incremental funding to additional accomplice collaborations on industry-advancing tasks.
Introducing the 2025 SMILE Well being Cohort:
- Feno (Culver Metropolis, California): A related oral well being platform combining sensible brushing expertise with customized insights to assist folks perceive, monitor, and enhance their oral well being.
- Firstgrin (New York, New York): Supplies pediatric oral care kits and evidence-based training through a companion app for households, aiming to stop oral illness from being pregnant via infancy and set up wholesome hygiene habits.
- KiDDY CAPS (Wilsdorf, Germany): Transforms pediatric dentistry by providing inexpensive, minimally invasive zirconia crowns for kids, making high-quality caries remedy extra accessible.
- Social Cascade (Raleigh, North Carolina): Permits suppliers to have interaction sufferers between workplace visits with well timed, related data to advertise equitable entry via training and drive neighborhood well being outcomes.
- Times Health (Knoxville, Tennessee): An AI-powered digital well being assistant offering 24/7 dental steering, symptom help, and preventive care training for proactive oral well being administration.
- Toothapps (Wayzata, Minnesota): Focuses on advancing well being knowledge entry, interoperability, and real-time affected person engagement throughout the medical and dental care continuum. Its Cair answer helps sufferers entry, perceive, and act on their full well being historical past.
- Willo (New York, New York): Presents automated toothbrushes designed for kids and people who want additional help or a more practical, hassle-free approach to keep day by day oral hygiene.
- Xploro (Cleveland, Ohio): A pediatric affected person training platform utilizing augmented actuality, gamification, and interactive content material to empower kids as energetic members of their well being journey, lowering anxiousness and enhancing outcomes.
