3D Printing Dental Startup Wins Big at Propelify Innovation Festival Arfona, a dental 3D printing company from Brooklyn has been selected as the winner of the 2017 Propelify Startup Competition.
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Arfona, a dental 3D printing company from Brooklyn has been selected as the winner of the 2017 Propelify Startup Competition.
Arfona aims to bring affordable tooth replacement to the masses with their groundbreaking process for 3D printing partial dentures. By partnering with leading dental materials manufacturers, Arfona is able to use its 3D printers to produce popular products such as partial dentures to save dentists and patients time and money. Founder and CEO Justin Marks claims that "digitizing these types of dental restorations allows for full integration with 3D scanning and computer aided design equipment that can be found in modern dental laboratories and clinics."
Billed as the "SXSW of the Northeast," Propelify is an annual festival that brings together more than 8,000 entrepreneurs, innovators, speakers and exhibitors. Its Startup Competition, sponsored by Samsung NEXT, Staples, Google and Techstars, saw applications from more than 120 companies. Ten semi-finalists were selected to pitch their companies to judges at the event, from which only four finalists were selected to pitch on stage to judges and attendees. As the winner of the competition, Arfona is the recipient of $10,000 cash, $25,000 in business credits from the sponsors, meetings with Staples and Samsung executives and press opportunities. Arfona was also a top-three finalist in the Rock The World Competition, sponsored by Taiwan Startup Stadium.
Of its achievement Marks adds, "We are thrilled not only for the win but for the opportunity to make oral health issues front and center in the tech and investor communities. More than 178 million Americans are missing at least one of their natural teeth and many patients go untreated because the process is either too expensive or too unpleasant. We're proud to be working on a solution to this problem and to be recognized by the startup community for our achievements."
