OUR STORY
Zirclab is a medical device company, launching its first product; a digital system for dental prosthesis. The founder, Marlon Cunico, developed this revolutionary device in Brazil where he leads the small R&D and production team. Marlon has an impressive education background and has dedicated six years of research to this technology and was recently selected to represent Brazil in the BRICS young entrepreneur awards. I met Marlon in our last job working for a medical device company, quickly established how incredible the technology was, and we partnered up to get it up and running in the UK. This year we showcased the device at the Dentistry Tradeshow in Birmingham (the largest in the UK) and have had some incredible feedback and in the process of preparing for first sales.
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
The patented technology is like nothing on the market already. It provides a faster, cheaper and more efficient process to produce crowns, veneers, bridges and dentures. Our device is based on shell sintering technology, eliminating time consuming manual processes still required for prosthetic fabrication and finishing. Error rate is lowered to 1% and time to produce one crown is 4 hours. Due to the use of powdered materials we have also created a system that reduces waste down to almost 0%. Current technologies have a high waste management problem.
EMPOWERING DENTISTS
Only 20% of dental practices in the UK currently use digital technology, with factors such as high cost, poor support and high maintenance stopping them from making the move from manual. Our system overcomes these challenges, and we aim to empower dentists. With more affordable technology, dental treatment can be readily available to less wealthy communities, and can be integrated into the NHS. NHS dentistry is in crisis and has struggled post covid. Reforms to the infrastructure need to take place and we truly believe we can be a part of this for a more efficient and attainable service. With a reduction on production costs by 20%, this can funnel down to the patient, whilst maintaining that the dentists receive a high return of investment due to lower running costs.
EMPOWERING WOMEN
We also have the potential to positively influence women in STEM. Only 16% of the engineering workforce is made up of women. As the female lead in charge of UK operations, I aim to encourage more females to seek, and importantly, maintain jobs in science and engineering. Surveys show that seeing these roles actually fulfilled by women have a big impact. We are in the position to recruit engineers and see this as a fantastic opportunity to meet this objective.
WHY WE NEED YOU
We have completely self-funded up until this point because we believe in what we have. It is important to us that 1) we can generate money to put back into the business and the employees 2) keep cost of the products low so that everybody can utilise the technology. Incorporating investors will limit our ability to this. Additionally, we do not seek high investment in return for capital; it’s simply enough to support us through the completion of our assembly line in the UK and running costs for the remainder of the year.
FREE LIVE DEMONSTRATION
For any dentists, dental technicians and dental suppliers, we are happy to invite you to a live demonstration, so you can see for yourselves how revolutionary the device is. See the link below to register your interest or scan the QR code.
https://www.zirclab.com/live-demo
