Beam rewards people for brushing their teeth.

Beam Dental, a dental insurer, uses AI in its operations (and toothbrushes) to assess people’s dental health and issue quotes in just 30 seconds. Beam’s app-connected brushes incentivize users to brush regularly and improve dental hygiene. In turn, they qualify for rebates on their dental insurance. (VentureBeat)

The Beam Brush

The company sells a semi-annual subscription service comprising Beam Brush, a Bluetooth-enabled sonic toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, and refill heads. Beam also has a smartphone app that connects with the brush and delivers ratings on a scale of A to D on the user’s dental hygiene.

This data is a valuable input into the pricing offered by Beam on its dental insurance. The company has also built an online insurance platform and developed AI-powered underwriting to become a “digital-first” dental insurer.

“At Beam, our vision is to modernize dental insurance by making it simpler and more intelligent,” said Alex Frommeyer, CEO and co-founder of Beam. “Our dental offering completely changes the way employers of all sizes think about dental wellness, by encouraging their employees to take better care of their teeth and making it easier to take a more proactive role in their dental care.”

Beams’ use of AI

Beam has developed algorithms that assess dental risk faster, more efficiently, and cheaper than human assessors.

Frommeyer told VentureBeat via email that the company had cataloged all the dental insurance factors down to the procedure code level. It then applied machine learning to minimize the difference between actual claims experience and the predicted one. For this, it uses data from inside the member’s mouth to predict the likelihood of expensive dental care in the future.

Because it uses more AI than human assessors, Beam is more cost-effective. It also can customize its insurance to the specific dental profile of the employees of even small and mid-sized businesses.

The company has grown revenue by 600% over the past three years, with a net revenue retention rate of 100%. It also doubled its member base in 2019 and again in 2020.

It announced today its raise of $80 million in an oversubscribed Series E fundraise. The round was led by Mercato Partners’ growth equity fund, Traverse.  New and existing investors, including Drive Capital, Georgian, Nationwide, and Breakout Capital also participated.

The round brings Beam’s total funding to over $160 million.

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