Oral health product firm founded by sisters backed by billionaire financier

Spotlight Oral Care, an oral health product company founded by Galway dentists Lisa and Vanessa Creaven, has secured a €2m investment from financier and billionaire Dermot Desmond’s private equity fund, International Investment & Underwriting (IIU).

According to records filed with Companies Registration Office, Spotlight secured the investment from IIU toward the end of July, 

The Creaven sisters founded Spotlight Oral Care in April 2016. It has since developed a range of oral care products – including toothpaste, teeth-whitening strips and a sonic toothbrush.

Spotlight Oral Care was founded by dentists Lisa and Vanessa Creaven in 2016. The firm offers a range of oral healthcare products, including toothpaste, teeth whitening stripes, sonic toothbrushes and biodegradable toothbrushes.

The company has recorded significantly increased sales over the past three years, from €900,000 in 2017, to almost €6m this year. It recently announced new deals that mean its products are to be stocked in a further 2,000 stores and pharmacies across the US, in addition to the several thousand outlets which already carry Spotlight Oral Care products. 

In September, it celebrated its fourth anniversary. The sisters said in a statement: “We have gone from one product and mailing orders on our lunch break to over 30 staff globally and with new products launching. [This year] has been such an exciting time for us as we launch into the
US and continue to grow our Ireland and UK customers.

“We created Spotlight Oral Care with the aim to create the best oral health products, to educate and promote oral care, empowering people to engage with true customised preventative oral care. Our range combines the latest advances in oral care research with the highest quality of ingredients while always keeping the end consumer in mind. 

“We identified a gap in the market as our patients struggled to find safe and effective oral care products, that contain clinically proven active ingredients to target their dental needs. We also identified that in our profession there is a lack of sustainability with billions of toothpaste tubes sitting in landfill each year.

“To tackle this issue, we had to make a move to become more environmentally friendly and aware. Our oral care toothpaste tubes are made from sugar cane making them the world’s first ever 100% recyclable tube which completely revolutionises the oral care industry.”