Israeli Dental Device Co. ReDent Raises $2.7M Series A

July 7, 2006. Beersheba, Israel - Israeli dentistry device company ReDent-Nova Ltd. has raised $2.7 million in Series A financing to complete the development of its product.

By Jonathan Matsey - Dow Jones

New investor Infinity Venture Capital led the round, joined by existing investor Ma'ayan Ventures and individual investors including Athena from Cyprus.

Based in Beersheba, Israel, ReDent has developed a self-adjusting file for use in endodontic dentistry. Files are used in root canals for the complete removal of the pulp of the tooth. Current root canals require the use of multiple files - ReDent hopes to replace that with a single file.

ReDent was launched in 2004 with technology developed by an Israeli dentist, Ehud Teperovich, ReDent's head of clinical development, and an engineer, Rafi Hof, now the company's chief technology officer.

Infinity said that the money will be used to complete the development of the file, conduct clinical trials on the device and to get it approved in the U.S. "It will get us deep into the market," said Amir Gal-Or, managing director at Infinity.

While Infinity is a new investor in ReDent, Infinity also has a stake in Ma'ayan, an incubator and early-stage investor, and Gal-Or serves as the chairman of Ma'ayan. ReDent raised about $1 million in seed financing from Ma'ayan and individual investors

Gal-Or said that dentistry is an often forgotten segment of the medical device industry. "The main problem in this space is that people are very conservative," he said. "If you make a disruptive technology, it can take people a long time to accept them." That problem will not likely occur with ReDent, which he said will only require dentists to purchase a new drilling device.

ReDent may have applications outside of dentistry, Gal-Or said, including drilling for oil.

Because the current round is sufficient to get ReDent to market, Gal-Or said that it is unlikely that the company will require enough financing to need outside investors. "We are not expecting it to need external VCs," he said. "We can handle it ourselves."