News

Smile Brands Inc., based in Irvine, California, announced today that it has completed two add-on acquisitions, partnering with two leading dental groups to grow their businesses.

A+ Dental Care (“A+”), now affiliated with Smile Brands, is a rapidly growing group dental practice with four convenient locations. The group’s nine general dentists and three specialists work together as a team to provide comprehensive, personalized dental care in Northern California to the communities of Roseville, Lincoln, Rocklin, and the surrounding areas. Smile Brands partnered with A+ to provide business support services to its original three A+ locations in March 2016 and supported A+ to acquire an additional location in November 2016. All five A+ partner dentists, including Dr. Tim Herman, Dr. Abdon Manaloto, Dr. Kayla Nguyen, Dr. Flaviane Peterson, and Dr. Chris Cooper, continue to lead A+’s growth in Northern California.

Smile Brands has also partnered with a group of three dental practices in Mountain View and Los Gatos, CA, which will now be collectively known as OneSmile Silicon Valley (“OSSV”). OSSV provides a full range of general dental services plus specialty services including endodontics, periodontics, OS, orthodontics, and complex implants. The 17-person staff includes six general dentists, six specialty dentists, and five hygienists. The founders of OSSV, including Robert Rutner, DDS, DICOI and Piyush Kothary, continue to lead OSSV’s growth in the Silicon Valley, CA area.

Steve Bilt, CEO of Smile Brands, stated, “Partnering with and then supporting dental entrepreneurs like the founders of OSSV and A+ is at the core of what has made Smile Brands successful. Our three national brands – BrightNow!, Monarch and Castle Dental – were all originally founded in partnership with an outstanding local dental group. Our greatest successes have come through supporting these groups as they grow and mature from a handful of locations to 20 or more over time.”

Patrick Costello, Smile Brands’ Director of Business Development, added, “Central to our acquisition strategy is to identify and partner with best-in-class dental groups that provide high quality and affordable service to their local communities. Our mission is to accelerate the growth of these practices through additional add-on acquisitions and by leveraging the combined scale and operational expertise of Smile Brands and our supported groups.”

Smile Brands is a portfolio company of Gryphon Investors (“Gryphon”), a leading middle-market private equity firm based in San Francisco, CA. Terms of the transactions were not disclosed.

About Smile Brands

Based in Irvine California, Smile Brands Inc. is one of the largest providers of support services to dental groups in the United States. Smile Brands Inc. provides comprehensive business support services through exclusive long term agreements with affiliate dental groups, so dentists can spend more time caring for their patients and less time on the administrative, marketing, and financial aspects of operating a dental practice. Smile Brands supports 350 Bright Now!® Dental, Monarch Dental®, and Castle Dental® offices in 17 states, including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington.

For more information, visit www.smilebrands.com.

About Gryphon Investors

Based in San Francisco, Gryphon Investors (www.gryphoninvestors.com) is a leading private equity firm focused on profitably growing and competitively enhancing middle-market companies in partnership with experienced management. For five consecutive years, Gryphon has been ranked in Preqin’s prestigious quarterly private equity report as one of North America’s top-decile firms based on consistency of strong investment returns. With over $2.5 billion of cumulative equity commitments, the firm has an extensive track record of leading equity investments of approximately $50 million to $150 million per portfolio company with sales ranging from approximately $50 million to over $500 million. Gryphon prioritizes investment opportunities where it can form proactive partnerships with owners and executives to build leading companies, utilizing Gryphon’s capital, specialized professional resources, and operational expertise.