Zhengya Dental Restarts IPO: "Dark Horse" Gathers Momentum, Breaks Through Barriers

Tooth malalignment is hard to hide, leading to hidden pain over time.

Smiling without showing teeth doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a lady; it could also indicate dental issues. Buck teeth, underbites, moon faces, and other imperfections can affect appearance and increase social distance.

To reopen the smile, orthodontic correction has become a necessity.

Data shows that orthodontic cases in China are increasing year by year, with cases solved using invisible aligners expected to reach 3.8 million by 2030.

Aesthetic anxiety is spreading downward, with even 2.5-year-old children wearing invisible braces. Compared to traditional “metal braces,” invisible aligners, with their technological advantages, are sparking a new trend.

Recently, Zhejiang Zhengya Dental Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “Zhengya Dental”), a leading company in invisible orthodontics, has resumed its IPO process by filing for guidance registration with the Zhejiang Securities Regulatory Bureau.

Zhengya Dental ranks among the top players in China’s invisible treatment market, second only to foreign brands Invisalign and domestic brand Angelalign, holding about 30% market share and serving approximately 1.5 million patients worldwide.

However, at its founding, foreign brands nearly monopolized the market. In just twenty years, Zhengya Dental has completed a “dark horse” turnaround, becoming a popular choice for consumers seeking invisible orthodontics.

Behind Zhengya Dental’s breakthrough is the industry entering a period of extremely high profit margins.

Breaking Through High-Margin Barriers

Founder Yao Junfeng dedicated himself to customized invisible aligners, influenced by his family background.

After returning from studying abroad, holding an MBA, he was inspired by his father’s industrialization project on “Personalized Prosthetic CAD/CAM Technology and Computer-Aided Clinical Engineering Systems,” which led him to develop market-ready products based on this technology.

After five years of technical research, Zhengya Dental officially launched its invisible aligners, utilizing digital orthodontic technology to make clinical treatment more comfortable and aesthetically pleasing.

According to Zhengya Dental’s website, products include early treatment versions for children and adolescents, bite induction versions, as well as Smartee GI, Smartee Jaw Rebuilding GS, and Smartee Aerospace editions.

In an interview, Yao Junfeng stated: “The GS series is our flagship product.” This series was developed in close collaboration with orthodontic expert Professor Shen Gang from Taikang Bibo. Shen Gang has served as Vice Chairman of the Chinese Orthodontic Society and Deputy Dean of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Stomatology, with deep clinical experience and expertise, injecting wisdom into the products.

Historically, dental appliances were considered “Hermès in the mouth,” costing thousands of yuan—equivalent to carrying a large sum daily—requiring careful maintenance.

This luxury brought trouble, making people love and hate it. As a result, a revolution in alternative orthodontic solutions quietly took place, with Zhengya Dental being one of the pioneers.

Compared to traditional options, Zhengya Dental’s prices are lower. According to the April 2022 “Invisible Orthodontics Industry Report” by Zhuoshi Consulting, Zhengya Dental’s products are priced between 10,000 and 40,000 yuan.

In contrast, mid-to-high-end brands like Invisalign and Angelalign are priced between 20,000 and 50,000 yuan. Angelalign even sells a product with a factory price of 7,600 yuan at a retail price of 32,000 yuan, a 4.21-fold markup.

Even with some price adjustments, the overall profit margin in the orthodontic industry remains substantial. With industry gross margins exceeding 60%, Zhengya Dental has attracted investments from well-known institutions, such as Series C funding from China International Capital Corporation in 2019 and a 500 million yuan Series D round led by Taikang Investment in 2022.

Over more than twenty years, Zhengya Dental has emerged from the “dark horse” of orthodontics, breaking through the duopoly of Invisalign and Angelalign, growing into a company with about 30% market share and over 800 million yuan in revenue. Its developed invisible aligners serve around 1.5 million patients globally, making it the only domestic company with a complete full industry chain in invisible orthodontics, with strong internal growth momentum.

Meanwhile, China’s invisible treatment penetration rate remains low, indicating huge market potential. According to the “Fourth National Oral Health Epidemiological Survey” by the National Health Commission, over 1 billion people suffer from malocclusion, but in 2020, only 3.1 million orthodontic cases were reported, with a penetration rate below 0.3%, far lower than the 1.8% in the U.S. Zhuoshi Consulting projects that by 2030, China’s orthodontic cases will reach 9.5 million.

In this largely untapped market, strong marketing is a key tool for expansion. However, driven by profit motives, orthodontic marketing has begun to distort.

For Zhengya Dental, from December 15, 2020, to February 10, 2021, it commissioned an MCN agency to recruit 400 influencers to post promotional content on Xiaohongshu, with the content’s user experience and positive reviews fabricated by the posters.

The involved MCN was fined by market regulators for aiding others in false or misleading commercial promotion.

Deceptive advertising cannot bring lasting benefits; solid technology is the key to sustainable development. In an era where users are increasingly annoyed by marketing anxiety, effective orthodontic results are the only true key to market success.

Exploring New Business Models

In the early stages of China’s invisible orthodontics development, limitations in technology precision and raw materials led to low cure rates and inconsistent results.

The core issue is that invisible aligner treatment relies heavily on the doctor’s expertise; the ability to “target the right treatment” depends on skilled orthodontists.

However, there is still a significant shortage of orthodontists domestically. China has approximately 277,500 general dentists and 6,100 orthodontists, meaning only about 19.5 per 100,000 people are general dentists, and just 0.4 per 100,000 are orthodontists.

These 6,100 orthodontists are unevenly distributed, mostly concentrated in first-tier and eastern developed cities.

Resource imbalance can lead to diagnostic discrepancies for the same case. Media reports show that Ms. Wen in Beijing took her 7-year-old son to a private dental clinic for tooth extraction. The clinic’s doctor recommended early use of invisible braces, with 3D-printed molds and regular checkups, costing 20,000 to 40,000 yuan for a 2-3 year treatment.

Ms. Wen also learned from a chief dentist at a top-tier hospital that the early invisible braces recommended by the clinic are suitable for children with skeletal development issues. The best time to treat skeletal malocclusion is when children aged 8 to 10 have active maxillary growth; early intervention may not be effective. Her son, who only has crooked teeth, can wait until age 12 to complete his permanent teeth before orthodontic treatment.

Faced with a shortage of orthodontists, duopoly dominance, and deep integration between manufacturers and medical institutions, Zhengya Dental is adopting a DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) model, transforming from a “braces OEM” into a full industry chain player integrating R&D, manufacturing, and sales.

By bypassing offline clinics, Zhengya Dental builds an online customer acquisition ecosystem, offering high-cost-performance products while also needing to overcome the limitations of real case data, creating a positive market and user value cycle.

However, similar models abroad have faced industry resistance. The U.S. company Smile Direct Club, which pioneered retail-based orthodontic operations, experienced rapid growth but was warned about industry risks and criticized for potentially harming patient rights.

If Zhengya Dental’s DTC model can coordinate with offline professional orthodontists, it will add a layer of safety to digital invisible orthodontics. This approach would involve offline clinics capturing patient data via imaging, while online professional teams develop treatment plans and ship products, potentially reducing overall user costs.

In terms of performance, Zhengya Dental has now ranked third in the industry, but the gap with the duopoly remains significant. Zhuoshi Consulting data shows that in 2020, Invisalign and Angelalign together held about 82.4% of the market share.

Based on approximately 446,000 cases in China in 2021, Invisalign and Angelalign each completed about 160,100 and 197,000 cases, respectively. Yao Junfeng revealed that Zhengya Dental handled about 80,000 cases that year.

Despite the gap, Zhengya Dental has already broken into the market. The company’s next move depends on the leadership of its management team, led by Yao Junfeng.

Source: Industry Technology

Author: Liu Lan

Disclaimer: This article is for informational sharing only and does not constitute any investment advice. Any investment decisions made based on this information are at your own risk.