Dublin-based WhatClinic — a healthcare comparison site for dental, plastic surgery and cosmetic treatments — has acquired the U.K. dental booking site Toothpick.
Terms of the acquisition remain undisclosed, though I understand that this was a mix of equity and cash, and that both of Toothpick’s founders are staying on.
(Update: According to sources, the price was less than £1 million, while one source described the deal as akin to an “acqui-hire”. I also understand the startup had taken more than a million pounds in investment over several rounds. Make of that what you will.)
Toothpick, which we’ve previously described as an ‘OpenTable for dentists’, was backed by London VCs Passion Capital, EC1 Capital, and 1 Seed.
WhatClinic, launched in 2007, claims listings for over 120,000 private clinics in over 130 countries around the world and says the acquisition of Toothpick will seek it roll out realtime booking as an option for the 11,000 U.K. dental clinics listed on the site and its 1 million-plus monthly users. It also plans to expand this functionality to dental listings outside the U.K. in the “coming months”.
Toothpick’s founder, Sandeep Senghera, said in a statement: “Since 2013 we have worked closely with UK dentists to ensure that their spare appointment availability (now totalling over 3 million live appointments slots) is automatically published online. This is just the beginning. By joining forces with WhatClinic, we are able to open up our easy-to-use booking system to many more patients and clinics, not only in the UK but all over the world. It’s a very exciting step for the Toothpick team.”
Meanwhile, Toothpick/WhatClinic competitors in the U.K. include dental booking site Zesty, and laser eye surgery-focussed RightClinic. It was also thought that U.S.-based ZocDoc was going to cross the pond, but this still hasn’t happened.