Dr. Inuk aims to take a leap this year and reach 1,000 points of sale in Spain with its teeth whitening products, redoubling its commitment to dental clinics and pharmacies. To do this, the startup is immersed in a financing round with which it wants to raise 200,000 euros, which it plans to add to another 200,000 euros from the state-owned Enisa.
With these resources, Dr. Inuk also focuses on developing new complementary products to its whitening strips and toothbrushes, as well as on expanding its team, which now consists of three people, in addition to its co-founders, Jordi Ripollès and Jordi Cebrián.
The company, founded in 2022, offers its products in 250 pharmacies and parapharmacies and through the online channel, and expects to reach 1.2 million euros in turnover this year. Last year, the company exceeded 500,000 euros in revenue, 250% more than in 2023.
The Catalan company's proposal whitens teeth using adhesive strips that are placed in the mouth for one hour a day for a minimum of 14 days. With prices around 50 euros, the company offers three types of strips, including some intended for people with sensitivity, and professional ones that are only available in dental clinics. Its other two products are sold both online and in pharmacies and parapharmacies, and are backed by an efficacy study from the Faculty of Dentistry of the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC).
Ripollès decided to promote Dr. Inuk after a period of a lot of coffee. The co-founder already had experience in entrepreneurship, with a cosmetic startup that took off in 2019 but saw its growth cut short by the pandemic and subsequent problems with manufacturers and cybersecurity. The situation generated an overload of work that was accompanied by a lot of coffee; too much for the whiteness of his teeth. From there arose his initial interest in whitening treatments and, after researching the market, he found some whitening strips that have been sold in the United States for years.
Intrigued by why they are not available in Europe and by the price difference compared to traditional treatments —which cost around 300 euros—, Ripollès asked a friend living in the United States to send him some strips to try them. It was after verifying their effectiveness that he decided to launch a similar product in Europe, but there was a handicap: US strips use hydrogen peroxide —oxygenated water—, and its sale is prohibited outside the dental channel. That's when an investigation began to find an alternative ingredient, which finally led to phthalimidoperoxycaproic acid ---PAP, for simplicity---, which is effective in whitening without posing risks to dental health and gum tissue.
"It is a derivative of hydrogen peroxide that eliminates its negative part, because it does not irritate the gums, does not generate sensitivity and does not release free radicals," explains Ripollès, who found that an Australian company was already using this component for this purpose and was invoicing some 260 million euros, focused on a younger audience than Dr. Inuk seeks. "PAP is the future and the evolution of dental whitening," defends Ripollès.
Once this ingredient was identified, Dr. Inuk started in 2022, led by Ripollès and Jordi Cebrián, who owns a pharmaceutical product distributor based in Molins de Rei, which allowed both partners to boost the brand's launch. They focused the next two years on building trust in their product among both their potential customers and dentists, in a process that has included a podcast with professionals and a study by the UIC. Now, the company aims to propel its growth with the launch of new products, such as a toothpaste, and with the investment round it has underway.