Natural Dental Implants Closes $2M Series A Financing

Dental Technology Company funded by Berlin, Germany and Dallas-based Business Angels and German Investment Funds.

Natural Dental Implants (NDI), Inc. the Dallas-based subsidiary of Natural Dental Implants AG, headquartered in Berlin, Germany, today announced the closing of its series A financing in the amount of $2M to be used for commercializing the Company’s patented REPLICATE™ Non-surgical Tooth Replacement System. Participating in the round were individual angel investors including members of the North Texas Angel Network, the InvestIn Forum, and the Business Angels Club Berlin-Brandenburg e.V. as well as two Germany-based investment groups, IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH and High-Tech Gruenderfonds GmbH & Co. KG.

The company’s technology was created and patented by Ruedger Rubbert, a serial entrepreneur and author of more than forty dental technology patents whose last company, Lingualcare, Inc., was sold to the 3M Company in 2007. Currently CEO of NDI AG, Ruedger Rubbert developed the REPLICATE System to reduce the treatment time and dental appointments as well as the discomfort and cost of traditional dental implants. “We are pleased to have an experienced group of investors standing beside us as we take this product into the commercialization phase,” said Rubbert.

Business angels played a key role in the financing round; the largest investment came from the North Texas Angel Network (NTAN) based in Dallas. “NTAN’s membership has doubled over the past year and you will see more deals like this one – disruptive technology, big market and proven management team – being funded by our group. This investment is the largest made by our group so far and 14 individual members participated,” said Chuck McCoy, NTAN’s Executive Director.

“We have already been investors in one of the companies, Mr. Rubbert founded before and we are looking forward to commercialize the next innovative product together with him,” said Ute Mercker, Senior Vice President of IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, and continued: “NDI has the opportunity to change significantly the field of dental implants and we are excited to participate.”

About Natural Dental Implants AG
Natural Dental Implants AG, headquartered in Berlin, Germany, with a U.S. subsidiary based in Dallas, Texas, was founded in 2006 to develop the intellectual property behind the REPLICATE™ Nonsurgical Tooth Replacement System. Research and development operations began in 2009. The company expects to enter the market in the second half of 2011

Contact:
Natural Dental Implants AG
Dipl.-Ing. Rüdger Rubbert
Dieffenbachstraße 33
10967 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0) 171 7765 026
Fax: +49 (0) 30 5268493 49
office@natural-dental-implants.com
www.replicatetooth.com 

About IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH
IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft (www.ibb-bet.de) and its investment arm VC Fonds Technologie Berlin GmbH is a joint initiative of Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB), the State of Berlin and the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft provides venture capital for young Berlin-based technology oriented companies and companies from the creative industries, and was founded in 1997 as a 100% subsidiary of Investitionsbank Berlin to support Berlin-based small and medium-sized enterprises. Since 1997, syndicates involving IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft have provided Berlin-based companies with more than 727 million euros.

Contact:
IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH
Ute Mercker Bundesallee 171
10715 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0) 30 2125 3201
Fax: +49 (0) 30 2125 3202
venture@ibb-bet.de
www.ibb-bet.de

About High-Tech Gruenderfonds
High-Tech Gruenderfonds (www.en.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de) invests risk capital in young, high-potential technology companies that convert promising research results in successful businesses. The seed financing provided aims to enable start-ups to take their R&D projects through to the creation of a prototype, a proof of concept or to market launch. High-Tech Gruenderfonds provides 500,000 euros of seed financing and may invest up to a total of two million euros per business in subsequent rounds. Investors in this public/private partnership are the German Federal Ministry for Business and Technology, the KfW Banking Group as well as the six industrial groups of BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gruenderfonds has a fund volume of about 272 million euros.

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Dr. Matthias Dill
Investmentmanager
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn
Tel.: +49 (0) 228 823 001-33
Fax: +49 (0) 228 823 000-50
m.dill@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de