Barcelona-founded digital orthodontics network Impress has signed a €40 million venture debt loan with the European Investment Bank (EIB). The money will go toward its AI platform across a network of more than 110 clinics worldwide and toward expansion in Europe.
The Loan
The agreement follows Impress’s financing of more than €110 million announced in 2024, which supported its European expansion after the acquisition of DrSmile.
Vladimir Lupenko, co-founder and CEO of Impress, said: “For years, patients have had to choose between expensive orthodontics with constant clinic visits, or at-home solutions without adequate medical follow-up. At Impress, we were born to close that gap. Our technology features an artificial intelligence engine powered by a global database of 500,000 patients, which allows us to multiply the efficiency of our clinics ten times, reduce in-person visits by 80%, and make quality medical care more accessible. The backing of the EIB represents a seal of guarantee in the HealthTech companies’ ecosystem in Europe, confirms our vision, and places us in an advantageous position to consolidate our model in the region.”
María Romano, Head of the EIB Group Office in Spain, added: “The digital transformation of the healthcare sector offers significant opportunities to improve the quality and efficiency of services provided to citizens. This operation reflects the EIB’s commitment to supporting innovative European growth companies like Impress that leverage AI to build cutting-edge solutions and expand their footprint across Europe, reinforcing EU leadership in HealthTech innovation.”
About Impress
Founded in Barcelona in 2019 by Vladimir Lupenko, Diliara Lupenko and Khaled Kasem, Impress is an invisible orthodontics and medical technology company. Its model combines in-person care at specialised clinics with continuous monitoring through an AI-powered platform.
It operates in 10 countries across Europe and the US, with more than 110 clinics and 500,000 patients treated worldwide, including 22 clinics in Spain.
The Platform
The new funding will drive development of Impress’s proprietary platform, an AI-based healthcare ecosystem meant to unify patient treatment from start to finish. It covers:
- In-clinic 3D intraoral scans, which the company says predict tooth movement more accurately than traditional moulds
- AI-assisted treatment planning
- Ongoing patient tracking through its mobile app
Recent additions include what Impress calls the industry’s first autonomous smile simulator, which uses AI to recreate the “before and after” of treatment in three seconds without manual work.
Growth and Expansion
Having consolidated Southern Europe, with Spain, Portugal and Italy as its main markets, Impress is preparing a new expansion phase focused on Northern Europe, mainly Germany, the Netherlands and the UK, where it has operated since 2023.
Over the last year Impress posted positive EBITDA and 32% revenue growth, reaching €103 million. For 2026 it expects revenue of about €145 million, growth of 40%. These are the company’s own figures.
A Busy Year for Digital Dentistry and AI Healthcare
The loan comes amid several European rounds in 2026, including France’s DentalMonitoring (€84 million), Lupin Dental (€15 million) and Belgium’s Relu (€1.51 million), plus Spain’s Tucuvi (€17 million) and Health Force (€4.2 million). Together with Impress’s loan, EU-Startups puts them at about €161.7 million in reported equity and debt financing.
