Analysis
MakeO, the Mumbai-headquartered dental group behind the Toothsi and Skinnsi brands, raised $10 million led by Singularity AMC, with unnamed funds and family offices also participating, e27 reported. Group CEO Arpi Mehta's company says the money will expand its dentist network across Southeast and North Asia, strengthen its technology, and expand manufacturing capacity.
A funding round for a merger, not a startup
The raise lands eight months after MakeO agreed, in February, to absorb Singapore-based Zenyum -- its latest acquisition, after folding Toothsi and Skinnsi together in 2022. Zenyum, founded in 2018 by Julian Artope and Frederik Krass, described the tie-up as a "merger of equals": Toothsi had roughly 500 partner doctors and 50-plus dental centers in India before the deal, while Zenyum brought about 600 doctor partners across Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Vietnam. The combined network now spans roughly 1,100 partner dentists across seven countries, though e27's reporting is explicit that this figure is largely merger arithmetic rather than fresh growth. Financial terms of the Zenyum deal itself were never disclosed.
“- MakeO -- a $16M bridge round (2024) backed by investor Ashish Kacholia and 360 One Asset.”
Each side brought its own funding history into the combination:
- Zenyum -- $13.6M Series A (2019); roughly $40M Series B (2021) led by L Catterton, with Peak XV (formerly Sequoia Capital India), RTP Global and Partech also backing it.
- MakeO -- a $16M bridge round (2024) backed by investor Ashish Kacholia and 360 One Asset.
The combined group now claims more than S$70 million in annual recurring revenue and says it is EBITDA-profitable -- a caveat worth weighing rather than accepting at face value. e27's own reporting notes that ARR is an unusual metric for aligners, which are typically one-off purchases rather than recurring subscriptions, and that the EBITDA figure excludes depreciation and amortization, making it a weaker signal of real profitability than a net-income number would be. The new round is also a strikingly thin slice of that claimed revenue, suggesting it's topping up working capital for integration and expansion rather than funding a fundamentally undercapitalized business.
The structural bet -- Mumbai as the manufacturing and clinical base, Singapore retaining control of Southeast and North Asia go-to-market -- lets MakeO use India's lower-cost, US FDA-certified aligner manufacturing to supply a pan-Asian distribution network built by Zenyum. Whether that model holds up depends on integration execution the company hasn't yet had to prove at this combined scale, and MakeO has already flagged more M&A ahead: selective deals and clinic partnerships across India, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong, a shift toward owning clinical capacity rather than just manufacturing for partner dentists.