- Lupin Dental raised a €15 million Series A funding round, led by the private equity firm Fynveur.
- The robotic system is approved in India and the UK for dental preparation, but it has not yet been cleared for use in the United States or the EU.
- Other companies, such as Perceptive and Pearl, show that there is significant investment in dental robotics and AI.
Stefen Koubi and Galip Güreli have spent three decades establishing themselves as leading figures in aesthetic dentistry. Now, they tell investors that although a robot cannot replace their expertise, it can replicate that expertise for dentists who haven’t had the opportunity to develop such skills over many years.
Lupin Dental, the name used by the French company Digicuto SAS, has completed a €15 million Series A financing. Fynveur, a private equity firm advised by Invus, headed the transaction with a direct investment of €10 million. The round was also joined by existing shareholders, new private investors, and a loan from Bpifrance.
Fynveur and Invus will assist Lupin as it expands, and Invus will take a place on the board.
“Lupin Dental opens a new chapter with this important milestone. It reflects our investors’ confidence in our vision and enables us to accelerate our mission to transform dental care through innovation,” Gürel and Koubi said.
Some forecasts suggest its value will be between $600 million and $712 million in 2025, rising to between $1.4 billion and $2.6 billion by 2033 or 2034, with annual growth rates expected to range from 12.9% to 18%.
From the dental chair to the algorithm
Koubi and Gürel founded Lupin in 2019 in Montpellier, France, which remains the company’s base of operations. The company has an office in Marseille and around 50 employees. Both of the founders are well-known cosmetic dentists who have won awards.
The company’s fundamental concept is that its practical skills can be transformed into digital processes and then replicated.
The Lupin Robotic System is an automated system that assists in preparing teeth for veneers in a minimally invasive manner, with a dentist overseeing the procedure. Great accuracy is required at this stage, since even minor errors can affect the outcome and lead to costly corrections. The software produces the patient’s desired smile and forms a treatment plan, after which the robot carries out the treatment under the dentist’s supervision.
For example, a general dentist without decades of specialist experience could use the system to prepare the patient’s teeth to the tolerances that Gürel and Koubi had refined by hand over their careers.
The regulatory race is the real competition
Perceptive, based in Boston, has raised $30 million for a fully automated system that can also place crowns. Neocis’ Yomi robot is already being used for guided implant surgery. In the area of diagnostics, Pearl raised $58 million in its Series B round, this time with Left Lane Capital from London as the lead, and Trust AI, a company backed by dentists, raised $6 million.
In this sector, the key difference among the various companies lies in the extent of their regulatory approvals, not merely in their technology.
The system developed by Lupin has received approval for use in clinical settings in India and the UK, where it is licensed and sold by Dolphin Lifesciences LLC under the name Dolphin Robotic Dental System, but it has not yet been approved in the United States or the EU, both of which are two of the world’s largest dental markets.
The fact that Bpifrance is getting involved is in keeping with the pattern the bank has established in its other investments in French deep tech, such as quantum computing, and in the wider venture capital sector across AI, climate technology and healthcare.
What the money is for
Lupin intends to establish additional partnerships with universities, medical centres, dental professionals, and dental service organisations so that more people can use its robotic system with the funds obtained from this funding.
The kind of skills most highly valued in dentistry are acquired through many years of practical experience. Lupin aims to convert this expertise into software that can be used worldwide, and both Fynveur and Bpifrance are supporting this initiative in the hope of helping Lupin expand before a bigger competitor enters markets where Lupin is still awaiting regulatory approval.
