Quip Announces Acquisition of Afora to Open Access to Affordable Dental Care
Oral health company Quip has announced the acquisition of NYC-based Afora, a dental care membership plan that offers an alternative to insurance. Afora is the first company to join the newly launched quip Labs, a venture studio created to foster innovation and development for emerging oral health products, platforms and services.
Afora’s plans start at $25 per month and include fully covered preventive services, such as cleanings, exams and x-rays, and discounted rates on non-preventative treatments. It connects members directly with a trusted network of top dental professionals, leading to a more streamlined and transparent dental plan for consumers, and a more simple process for practices.
“Perfect oral health is based on prevention, and we created quip to make the entire preventative oral care routine more simple and affordable for everyone. Visiting a professional at least twice every year is a crucial part of your oral health routine, ensuring dental issues you may not be able to detect at home are identified and fixed before they become painful and require expensive procedures. With over 100 million Americans without any dental coverage at all, and many with coverage that doesn’t incentivize making the most of your covered preventative care, we feel it is essential to offer an alternative that can help more people visit the dentist more often, for less. Bringing Afora into quip Labs allows us to accelerate this project towards our mission of supporting our members through all aspects of their oral care routine, from the products they use everyday, to the professionals they visit every six months” – cofounder and CEO of quip, Simon Enever.
As part of the acquisition, Afora will now have access to quip’s resources and expertise in marketing, technology development and creative services, in addition to the opportunity to merge with quip’s existing service and networks.
To support quip’s expansion of their oral health offerings, quip has struck a financing deal with Silicon Valley Bank worth up to $10 million. This financing comes on the heels of quip’s recent $10 million Series A in 2017 from multiple parties including Sherpa Capital, Blue Scorpion VC, and Demi Lovato.
