Updated version 2 - Swiss dental startup vVardis shares fall on their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange

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Prakhar Srivastava

Reuters, November 13 - Dental health company vVardis (VVVV.N) saw its shares drop 22% on its debut Friday on the New York Stock Exchange, after raising $175 million in an IPO that priced below expectations.

The Zug, Switzerland-based company opened at $14 per share. In its IPO, vVardis sold 9.7 million shares at $18 apiece—well below its targeted price range of $21 to $24 per share.

The weak debut comes at a time when the U.S. IPO market faces increasing pressure—driven by a selloff in artificial intelligence-related technology stocks, as well as uncertainty around AI regulation and data center spending after the Democratic Party’s midterm election win.

“The recent technology stock selloff has made investors more price sensitive, and vVardis’s continued losses plus its heavy dependence on a single customer may have made it hard to justify its initial valuation during the roadshow,” said IPOX analyst Lukas Muehlbauer.

Despite market volatility, Swiss biotech Windward Bio (WWB.O) also went public around the same time as vVardis.

Healthcare is considered a defensive sector due to the essential nature of its services.

“I expect the IPO window for healthcare to remain open, though investors are in a stronger position to challenge valuations. Biotech companies with backing from large pharmaceutical companies may fare better in raising capital,” Muehlbauer said.

“Healthcare companies have shown relative resilience in getting deals done. In October, all seven IPOs in the U.S. market were drug developers—normally the number of deals in that month is about twice that figure across all sectors,” he added.

vVardis was founded in 2020 by Swiss dentists and sisters Haley and Goly Abivardi. Its Curodont brand focuses on developing non-invasive dental treatment options aimed at repairing and reversing early-stage tooth decay without drilling or injections.

In the nine months ended September 30, sales of its flagship U.S. product, Curodont Repair Fluoride Plus, surged 112%. According to company filings, as of June 30, the product was available in more than 20,000 U.S. dental clinics.

(To aid non-native English speakers, Reuters has provided this report in several other languages using automated translation. Because automated translation may be inaccurate or lack appropriate context, Reuters cannot guarantee the accuracy of the translated text and provides it solely for readers’ convenience. Reuters accepts no liability for any damage or loss caused by use of the automated translation function.)