FORMERLY PE OWNED
SmileDirectClub
Includes SDC, Smile Direct
dental · Nashville, TN
- PE Firm
- Clayton, Dubilier & Rice →
- Acquirer
- Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (lead PE investor)
- Year Acquired
- 2018
PE poured $380 million into mail-order teeth aligners, took it public for $1.35 billion, then watched it shut down overnight with tens of thousands stranded mid-treatment.
What Happened
- Clayton, Dubilier & Rice led a $380 million PE investment in SmileDirectClub in October 2018, valuing the company at $3.2 billion
- Went public in September 2019, raising about $1.35 billion in one of the year's largest IPOs, less than a year after the PE money arrived
- Filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September 2023, then abruptly shut down all operations in December 2023 with zero warning to customers or employees
- The company kept collecting monthly installment payments after shutting down — charging customers for treatment they could no longer receive
The Damage Done
- Tens of thousands of customers mid-treatment were told to stop using their aligners with no path to complete their dental work — teeth partially moved with nowhere to go
- The New York Attorney General recovered $4.8 million for over 28,000 consumers who were wrongly charged after operations ceased
- SmileDirectClub bypassed traditional orthodontists entirely, and when it collapsed, those patients had no existing dental relationship to fall back on
Sources
- Attorney General James Recovers $4.8 Million for Consumers Wrongly Charged by SmileDirectClub — NY AG Office(2024-06-15)
- SmileDirectClub shuts down after filing for bankruptcy — CNN(2023-12-09)
- SmileDirectClub makes its debut on the public market — TechCrunch(2019-09-12)
- SmileDirectClub Announces $380 Million Equity Private Placement at $3.2 Billion Valuation — CD&R Newsroom(2018-10-10)