Why Sparrow Ventures invested in bestsmile

Our Investment in Bestsmile

Founded in late 2018, bestsmile, a young Swiss startup is on a mission to make dental correction accessible to everyone who wants it.

With clear aligners produced in Switzerland the team around Ertan Wittwer, Philip Magoulas, and Marcel Kubli is taking a new approach and has grown rapidly while creating a lot of buzz with numerous of its boutique-style practices opening throughout the country within a short period of time.

This has fully convinced us and therefore we invested in bestsmile at the end of 2019. Here below we explain why we are glad to be on board as a partner and investor.

Strategic Direct-to-Consumer Model

In the past 20 years, five million people worldwide have been successfully treated with clear aligners…

…but this also comes with a price tag attached to it. Thanks to a direct-to-consumer approach, bestsmile makes it possible for the Swiss population to get those orthodontic treatments at a very competitive price point.

Having integrated the whole supply chain and production of the aligners in Switzerland and by focusing on the user experience, they have managed to shift the wearing of clear aligners from a medical angle to a lifestyle experience, the same way we would wear glasses.

Supporting the ambitions of a Swiss startup that aims to provide a service with real value add, at an attractive price-point to the Swiss population.

Supporting Growth and Expansion

Next to rapid growth within a short period of time, this positioning underlines the two main reasons why we invested in bestsmile:

The first being the idea of providing qualitative orthodontic treatments with clear aligners at a very competitive price.

Those are often, but especially for adult people, not aesthetic if treated with braces and expensive. We believe orthodontic treatments should be more accessible and that’s exactly what bestsmile offers.

The second is that we are fully convinced by the founders.

They have the drive, the ambitions, and the experience to establish bestsmile as the lead supplier of qualitative orthodontic treatments with clear aligners for everyone who wants it.

Market Potential

While the Swiss market is by definition a small market, it is for now far from being served in the orthodontics area.

As highlighted above, due to its price point, qualitative orthodontic treatments with clear aligners were until now reserved to a small portion of the population only.

bestsmile provides a direct to consumer service that is much more affordable for a bigger part of the Swiss population.

Elsewhere in Europe, several players entered this market as well because the approach is innovative and not protected by any patents.

No doubt it is highly likely that more new players will enter the field across markets and thus competition will become harder over time.

Yet, here in Switzerland bestsmile has been the first mover and this advantage is hard to overtake.

This is also reflected in their rapid and continuous growth since starting back in late 2018: Having opened to date close to 20 shops all around Switzerland underlines their efforts to make the service available to the Swiss population in different regions across the country.

Dedicated team

An achievement like this does not come from anywhere. The driving force behind the startup and its road to success are the founders Ertan, Philip, and Marcel.

Our investment will help them to scale their operations even faster along with improving the market penetration thanks to their well-thought marketing campaigns.

Together with their dedicated teams around them, we are convinced that they will bring bestsmile to the heights they are targeting.

Conclusion

We are happy to be on board as a partner to help bestsmile on this journey in order to achieve their objective.

For this, and just like with every investment we are making at Sparrow Ventures, we will ensure that the startup receives the support they deserve to grow, which of course also includes exploring any synergies within the Migros Group.

For more info or to find a practice near you check out their website: www.bestsmile.ch

You can read the rest of “Why we invested in” collection here:

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