Accelerating Early-Stage Oral Health Startups  


Simple, Minimally Invasive, Integrated, Low-Barrier, and Equitable (SMILE) Health aims to identify and incubate early-stage startups that deliver transformative, disruptive changes that improve overall health.


Challenge Statement

SMILE Health asks: How can we provide accessible, equitable, and integrated oral health care?


Who should apply?

CareQuest Innovation Partners and MATTER are seeking early-stage startups tied to the overall challenge statement that are looking for access to data sources, validation, customer feedback, industry data, and more. The SMILE Health Program is open to global solutions across all disciplines with a strong leadership team. If your product does not currently have an oral health application, you can still apply as long as there is a potential use case for oral health. Read the SMILE Health FAQ for more information.


Timeline:

March 13, 2023: Applications open

May 5, 2023 at 11:59p ET: Applications close

May 22 - May 31, 2023: Meetings with top candidates

June 5, 2023: Announcement of cohort

June 12 - September 1, 2023: SMILE Health Program

September 19-20, 2023: Stakeholder Day

October 8-11, 2023: Demo Day 


Program details:

This program includes a required incubation period from June 12 to September 1. During this phase, participants will validate and pressure test their solutions through interactive workshops that include mentoring from subject matter experts and real-time feedback from the oral health community — from clinical thought leaders to patients and caregivers. The time commitment is 10–15 hours per week.


MATTER