Floe Oral Care backed by Holland & Barrett
Floe Oral Care, the direct-to-consumer oral healthcare business, has secured £350,000 in funding from a group of investors that includes Holland & Barrett, Lord Mervyn Davies, Tim Farazmand, Professor John Deanfield, Sir Nigel Rudd and Julio Bruno.
In addition, existing shareholders Stephen Welton, Dr. Jose Navarro and Charles Southey are following on.
Founded by Anglo-Spanish duo Will Welton and Javier Navarro, Floe is an online subscription service that tracks gum health via proprietary at home saliva testing and also offers a range of oral health products. Launched in August 2020, the company’s core dental kit includes its Dusk and Dawn toothpaste formulations as well as an ultra-soft toothbrush and charcoal dental floss. With products delivered to subscribers every three months, the company also offers a free-returns service for collecting used products for specialist recycling when subscribers’ new boxes arrive.
Welton said: said: “Our mission is to build a service that both tracks and improves oral and systemic health. We want to encourage a pro-active relationship with dental care by capturing and contextualising oral health data, and are thrilled to be bringing on board a fantastic group of investors from business and healthcare as well as an excellent and highly relevant corporate partner. This is a great platform for the next stage of our development”
Tamara Rajah, chief business and science officer at Holland and Barrett, added: “H&B are committed to making health and wellness a way of life for everyone, and to supporting early-stage innovation in wellness as part of our strategy. Recognising that effective oral health management can disproportionately impact an individual’s overall health and wellness, coupled with our interest about the potential of diagnostics, makes Floe very exciting for us.”
Julio Bruno, chief executive of Time Out Group, will be joining the Floe board as a non-executive director while Stephen Welton, founder and executive chairman of growth capital investor BGF, will remain as chairman of the business. Meanwhile, Professor John Deanfield has joined Floe as chief medical officer and will be putting together an advisory board to inform the strategy on saliva testing and future healthcare products.
