Swift Health Systems Inc. is ready to move out of stealth mode with its orthodontic device InBrace, a Food and Drug Administration-registered technology that uses digital treatment planning to correct teeth through adjustable wires hidden behind the teeth. Swift Health, an EvoNexus incubator company, plans to take 16,500 square feet near University Research Park.
EvoNexus, in collaboration with Irvine Co., provides startups in its incubator program free collaborative working space.
Swift Health’s space will include administrative and manufacturing capabilities, according to Chief Business Officer Vijay Dhaka. He added that the company plans to more than double employment by the end of the year, hiring those with sales and marketing, as well as customer support experience.
He said InBrace has raised over $25 million.
Dhaka, who came across the technology while working at the technology transfer office at the University of Southern California, said the orthodontic industry has had surprisingly few innovations.
“When I was in my late 20s I was very conscious of my teeth because they were crooked, and I wouldn’t smile,” said Dhaka, referencing his own teeth-correcting experience. He said traditional braces weren’t aesthetically pleasing and removable braces systems like Invisalign don’t always make the best choice for straightening teeth because they offer less control and are less suitable for treating more complex teeth misalignment.
The company is soft-launching its product. It will officially launch next year at the annual meeting for orthodontists held by the American Association of Orthodontists in May.
InBrace was co-founded by orthodontists John Pham, chief executive, and Hongsheng Tong, chief technology and chief medical officer.
—Sherry Hsieh
CES
Startup Yinscorp Ltd., which has dual headquarters in Irvine and Taiwan, is prepping a crowdfunding campaign to help bring its multifunction projector to market.
The company, launched last year by Kenneth Wu and Willie Yin, will be at CES this week exhibiting the Count Projector at the Sands Hotel’s Eureka Park Marketplace, a specialized exhibit area showcasing startups and emerging companies (see story, page 3).
The device is designed to transform a smartphone into an interactive projector that responds to hand gestures. Applications include augmented reality and projection mapping.
The crowdfunding campaign should launch around March, Wu told the Business Journal.
“We are also approaching VCs and some investors who might be interested in investing in us,” he said.
Yinscorp has about 10 employees and has been self-funded.
—Chris Casacchia
Business Partner
Irvine-based Cie Digital Labs, which provides consulting, digital strategy and application, has a unique business plan to offer to startups. “We are not a provide-services-for-free kind of business. We are business partners,” said Chief Executive Anderee Berengian.
Cie Digital takes equity interest in startup companies it brings onboard. Those companies will be able to tap it for services such as accounting, IT services, software, and application development for a fee. “We are there operating those companies along with the [startup founder],” said Berengian. He added that its executive leadership team, including Justin Choi, head of product strategy, and Alvin Fong, chief operation officer, as well as executives in residence—former Pepsi brand marketing head Jim Davis and former Saks Inc. chief executive and chairman Brad Martin—will help advise entrepreneurs.
He gave ASAP Tire as an example. The Business Journal wrote about the mobile tire installation company last month. Consumers simply share location and car model through the ASAP Tire app, and a certified technician will come and replace the tires on-demand.
“When James first came to us, he had only one truck,” Berengian said. He said James Chen, founder of ASAP Tire and president of Axis Sport Tuning Inc. in Santa Fe Springs, which manufactures wheels for high-end cars, is an auto industry expert but lacks the resources to scale his business. ASAP Tire has a dozen service vehicles and operates in Los Angeles and OC areas, as well as across Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.
Berengian said Cie Digital is devoting about 50% of its resources to its core enterprise business, 20% to in-house startups and 30% to external startups in its accelerator program. On the accelerator side, it’s “interested in anything consumer-facing, software and hardware, e-commerce, social [and] digital IoT.”
—Sherry Hsieh
