Impress signs €40 million venture debt loan with the EIB for its AI platform

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Impress, the Barcelona invisible-orthodontics company founded in 2019 by Vladimir Lupenko, Diliara Lupenko and Khaled Kasem, has signed a €40 million venture debt loan with the European Investment Bank, backed by the EU's InvestEU programme. Venture debt is the arrangement where the lender collects interest and also gets paid if the company becomes worth more, which makes it a loan with quiet opinions about equity. The money goes into Impress's AI platform, which follows a patient from the first visit through treatment and maintenance: 3D intraoral scanners that predict how teeth will move, AI-assisted treatment planning and an app for follow-up without a trip to the clinic. It will also fund expansion into northern Europe, with Germany, the Netherlands and the UK named. It is the company's first large financing since its last equity round, more than two years ago.

Lupenko says the AI engine draws on a global database of 500,000 patients, makes the clinics ten times more efficient and cuts in-person visits by 80%. Impress runs more than 110 clinics in 10 countries across Europe and the US, 22 of them in Spain with 7 more planned, and employs 1,100 people. It makes 30% of its 3D-printed aligners with HP at its factory in Barcelona's Zona Franca; the rest come from China and the US. It is also retiring the Dr. Smile brand. Growth, in his telling, does not mean a clinic on every corner: "I don't think we need more than four clinics per country," he says.

Revenue was €103 million in 2025, and the company expects 40% growth to €145 million this year. EBITDA turned positive for the first time last year; net profit is not expected until 2028. Impress has raised €280 million from more than 20 investors since its founding; its previous round was €110 million, €40 million of it debt. Lupenko says a new round could close soon, mainly to fund the US, where Impress arrived in 2023 without much success, while also saying the company has enough resources until at least 2028. He rules out a large acquisition there. Not needing money and possibly raising some soon are, in this business, entirely compatible positions.