Venture capital firms have made significant investments into the oral health industry over the past decade, with more than $400 million in funds in 2024 alone.
An October report by CareQuest Innovation Partners, revealed that there have been a total of 59 venture capital deals in oral health in 2024, cumulatively worth $400.2 million
This influx of investment has had a big effect on the industry, with more investors who are typically focused in healthcare outside of oral health moving toward dentistry, according to Denise Marks, CFO and executive vice president of CareQuest Institute for Oral Health.
"It used to be really just focused on DSOs and expanding DSOs, but now its really looking at, how do we solve some of these problems within the industry of care and create novel products, services and delivery models that will actually help improve a patient journey, but also reduce the total cost in the system," Ms. Marks told Becker's.
2021 and 2022 saw more than $2 billion invested into oral health between, a large spike compared to 2024, according to the report.
So what caused the peak a few years ago? Ms. Marks said it was driven by market dynamics, including low interest rates and a large amount of available capital.
While it is unclear whether the industry can get back to those $1 billion per year benchmarks, some see opportunities in exits from companies that received investments a few years ago.
"A number of those companies that were funded [in 2021] are maturing now, and I think what we're going to start to see is the lifecycle getting through to some exits," Ms. Marks told Becker's. "Once we start seeing some really interesting exits it's going to kind of propel that flywheel, so to speak, and create the incentives for entrepreneurs and startups to take this risk, put their heart and soul into creating a startup. It can be lucrative down the road, but when you think about where we are in the life cycle, it's still really young."
The future of the oral health space is bright when it comes to investors realizing the importance and potential of the industry going forward, especially as outside factors continue to push dentistry toward innovation, according to Ms. Marks.
"Folks are realizing the opportunity to invest in oral health and I think that will continue to grow," Ms. Marks said. " I think there's no question with the demographic tailwinds and with overall cost growing and really ballooning. If you look at the cost of healthcare as a percentage of GDP it's not sustainable, so there have to be changes. I do think we're at this very unique inflection point where we have to innovate and we have to invest in those that are innovating."