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Global Dental Services (GDS), which operates the nationwide chain of oral care clinics Clove Dental, has raised $66 million in growth funding led by Investcorp.

The other investors in this round include Tybourne Capital Management, SeaLink Capital Partners, and existing investors. Prior to this round, GDS had cumulatively raised around $100 million from family offices and high networth individuals.

Founded in 2011 by Amarinder Singh, GDS operates 340 Clove Dental clinics in 24 cities across 12 states. The fresh capital will be used by GDS for its three business divisions – clinics, dental beauty or alignments, and oral care products.

On the funding received, Amarinder said, “We are building a long-term sustainable business and now, with an institutional investor, GDS will be able to scale much more rapidly.”

According to the founder, the company has been adding 100-120 clinics every year prior to the advent of COVID. There has been a pause in the last three years due to the pandemic. Now, given its experience of rolling out the company-owned clinics, it is eyeing its next milestone: 1,000 clinics.

“We plan to have 30 clinics in every city where we have a presence,” Amarinder said.

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GDS has made investments across the entire value chain – software, dental laboratory, sourcing, distribution, quality management systems, products, recruiting and training of dental assistants, etc. It uses computer vision and AI-based software technologies monitor safety functions at its clinics.

Amarinder said, “The dental industry in India is on the verge of significant growth. There is increased awareness of both, good oral health and the perfect smile.”

Gaurav Sharma, Head of Private Equity, Investcorp India, said, “Today, the Indian dental services market is worth $3 billion. It is highly fragmented with large hospitals and dental chains accounting for under 10% of all practices. This is expected to double in the next five years. Investing in a single specialty segment within healthcare aligns well with our thesis of backing scaled and differentiated assets.”