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SmileDirectClub

TeledentistryUSA
New to Unitard
💀 Dead / Bankrupt
Peak $8.9 BillionToday
~-100%
from peak
  1. 🦄
    Became a unicorn
    ~2018
  2. 📈
    Peak valuation
    $8.9 Billion ’19
  3. 💔
    Became a Unitard
    Sep 2023
  4. 💸
    Last valuation
    Wiped out
Capital raised
$427M
Total raised
$127K/day
Raised per day

Total raised averaged per day over approximately 9.2 years from founding to bankruptcy or shutdown. This is not measured cash burn. Methodology

Funding: Crunchbase/Tracxn
Current status
Bankrupt 2023; ceased ops Jan 2024

The rise & fall

7 moments · 2014–2024

The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.

2014
Founded in Nashville
Clear aligners by mail, with telehealth check-ins instead of orthodontist visits.
Wikipedia
Oct 2018
Joins the unicorn club
A private round values the aligner startup in the billions.
CNBC
Sep 2019
The peak: an $8.9B IPO$8.9B
Prices at $23 — then drops 28% on day one, a warning shot.
CNBC
2020–22
Losses, lawsuits, dental-board fights
Regulators and orthodontists attack the model; the stock never recovers.
Reuters
From the inside · Glassdoor reviews, 2021–23
Glassdoor reviews describe shop staff pushed to convert 70–80% of visitors into ~$2,000 aligner sales, and layoffs that reviewers said landed in serial January rounds.
Sep 2023
Chapter 11 — joins the Unitard Club 💔
Files four years after the IPO; leadership assures staff it will trade through bankruptcy.
Court filing
Jan 2024
Shuts down instead
Operations cease with customers left mid-treatment — reviewers said the end came with no warning and no severance.
CNBC
$8.9Bof peak value erased · 9 years

💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.

How it happened

SmileDirectClub pioneered direct-to-consumer clear dental aligners sold via telehealth, reaching a peak valuation near $8.9B around its 2019 IPO. The stock cratered after the offering amid mounting losses, regulatory scrutiny, and lawsuits. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023 and ceased operations in early 2024, leaving customers without ongoing treatment support.

Source: Raised $430M private

Where they went

  • David Katzman
    last CEO & chairman
    Managing Partner at Camelot Venture Group
    LinkedIn ↗
  • Jordan Katzman
    co-founder (met Fenkell at summer camp, both in braces)
    Not on record
  • Alex Fenkell
    co-founder
    Co Founder at Want, LLC
    LinkedIn ↗

Current roles as self-reported on LinkedIn, retrieved 2026-08-21. See our methodology.

Disclosed investors (6)

Historical funding participation; lists may be incomplete and do not establish current ownership or investor losses.

* Lead in a funding round · Crunchbase ↗ · 2026-10-23 · Methodology · Leaderboard

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