“Never have I ever experienced such a year in K Line Europe’s history so far!” That has been my punch line for the last 3 years in every annual meeting. From 2020 till now, it has been nothing but a rollercoaster of daily challenges. A very reflective quote I like most says “Leading a startup is like jumping off a cliff and building a plane on the way down”, it is literally like that. Every day there is adrenaline pumping and high cortisol levels in our bloodstream. the fun never ends. If it wasn’t for the daily challenges and the great teamwork, we wouldn’t have put so much energy into making this business grow. If it wasn’t for our clients, we’re obsessed with, we wouldn’t have improved ourselves every day.
2022 was not an easy year for many providers in the clear aligner market. We’ve seen together some turbulence in 2022, some came out stronger while others had to surrender. As the market dynamics and customer behavior changes post-pandemic, there is so much to be explored and reached. Those who will survive in 2023 are the ones who are bold enough to adapt and pivot when necessary to keep growing.
If I would simplify 2022 year’s results I would put them in bullet points as follows:
We moved to a new production site 3000 sqm hall in the south of Dusseldorf.
We managed to close our Series A funding round.
We widely expanded our OEM services in Europe to reach over 70% of the European OEM market.
We received the ISO13485 and 510K- FDA registrations.
We launched K Scan under our digital unit, which did amazingly well in the first 6 months of its launch.
We reached over 3.5 million aligners produced so far since we started doing business.
We doubled our capacity throughout 2022 from January to December.
Our team grew to over 250 people from all over the world.
Behind the scenes, there were so many hard-working people who dedicated themselves to the cause. I would love to give them a big THANK YOU. If you haven’t brought K Line backwards then you definitely brought it forwards. Thanks to the commercial sector at K Line, thanks to the production team, thanks to operations, HR, product management, supply chain, project management, compliance, treatment planner, organizers, R&D, IT, marketing, and finance.
As I write this letter, I feel so much optimism for 2023. We have an amazing team who will lead us to great things in 2023. We plan to introduce new products, and most of all ClearX will be introduced on the IDS. We can’t wait for this technology to go out there and disrupt the clear aligner market and trigger decreasing plastic waste.
I wish everyone in the dental and clear aligner market a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. This is to 2023!
Kind regards,
Sherif Kandil