Dental cosmetics startup Zenyum bags US$13.6m in Series A funding

It eyes launching a brand for retainers and teeth whitening.

Zenyum, a dental cosmetics startup founded in Singapore, raised $18.57m (US$13.6m) in its Series A funding round from RTP Global, Sequoia India, TNB Aura, Enterprise Singapore’s investment arm SEEDS Capital and other investors, according to an announcement.

Zenyum was founded in 2018 by Julian Artopé and Frederik Krass. It leverages the power of technology and a fast-growing network of dentists and orthodontists to deliver affordable and highly-personalised cosmetic dental products.

Zenyum’s app provides monitoring and guidance throughout the customer journey, serves as a touchpoint between doctors, Zenyum experts and customers while saving chair time in clinics.

Via a pre-assessment conducted through Zenyum’s website, candidates are assessed by a panel of orthodontists and dentists on their compatibility for Zenyum treatment. Suitable candidates then visit one of the hundreds of Zenyum’s partner clinics for a 3D intraoral scan by a local doctor, to create a set of customised invisible aligners.

The company currently operates in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand, with expansion into Vietnam, Indonesia, and Taiwan currently underway. According to Zenyum, the majority of their customers are upwardly mobile millennials who have recently entered the workforce.

Zenyum's funding will be used to power further market expansion as well as extending the current range of products beyond aligners and into retainers, teeth whitening and more - creating a new category, 'Smile Cosmetics'.

Zenyum was part of the inaugural Surge cohort, a rapid scale-up programme for early stage startups in India and Southeast Asia launched by Sequoia Capital India earlier this year.