Meet Harvard graduate, whose bad experience with dentist drove him to build India's largest dental chain worth...

The idea of establishing Clove Dental, which is now India’s largest dental chain, was birthed in 2010, when its founder, Amarinder Singh, visited a dental clinic with his wife in Delhi, and had a bad experience.

"I was at the clinic for a tooth filling, and everything was going fine till I had to rinse and spit. That's when I saw the drain was dirty and unhygienic, I was disgusted to see the rot there. That drove me to venture into the market," said Singh, who had recently shifted to India after a long stint in the US and Canada, and was looking for an opportunity in healthcare.

Thus, in 2011, Clove Dental was born, which has now expanded into a nationwide 350+ clinic chain, with 35,000+ patients, and a turnover of over Rs 140 crore in 2019. 

Early life

Singh completed his early education in Delhi, and then shifted to Rashtriya Military School, Dehradun, and later to Nigeria. His father worked for a government officer in the education department and his mother was a school teacher.

In Nigeria, Singh outperformed in academics and completed his education at 15 and then took admission in the university, for a five-year engineering program.

“Being the youngest, the only one with a turban and one amongst the 12 foreigners among 8,000 Nigerian students, I was picked on, bullied and teased. As a result, I went into a cocoon and focused on my studies without any distractions,” he recalled.

Post his graduation, in 1989 he worked as a plant manager. Thereafter, he went to the prestigious Waterloo University, Canada, for his Masters in Engineering on a scholarship. “I looked Indian, talked Indian but behaved Nigerian and felt like a misfit. So I drowned myself in my studies again and won the gold medal at the department level," he said.

Thereupon, he worked as a Supply Chain Manager in various renowned companies in Canada like Proctor and Gamble, and Warner Lambert Pharmaceuticals, and earned a whopping salary.

Later, he completed his MBA from Harvard in 1998. Then, he shifted to San Francisco to start his venture, Simplexis, a  B2B education venture, with his two friends from Harvard. He raised 35 million USD in March 2000, and was featured in Time Magazine, but in 2002, they sold the business.

Meanwhile, Singh got married in 2000 and had a daughter in 2003, during which time he took a sabbatical for six months and took a consulting job.

Then, in 2010 he took the life-changing decision of shifting to India, which has now been worthwhile. “ In 2010, I had a midlife crisis,” as he recalls. “I had two daughters, nine and five years old, and I wanted to live with my parents in Delhi,” he shared.

Beginning of Clove Dental

Thereafter, his discovery of a gap in dental healthcare in India and lack of awareness combined with his negative experience at a dentist, drove him to set up the first Clove Dental clinic by investing 1 million USD (Rs 7 crore), through personal investment, friends and family. 

"Dental care in India was lacking in various things such as infrastructure, hygiene, and sterilisation. I saw the majority of Indians need some form of dental care, but only ten per cent were going to a qualified dentist," Amarinder said.

Large-scale problems need large-scale solutions, so he decided to open 600 dental clinics in 10 years and became a renowned dental care provider across India in just a few years.

Clove Dental practices a "middle of the pack" pricing model- a strategy he invented after studying the pricing of other clinics. "Each clinic costs around Rs 30 lakh to set up as 80 to 85 per cent of the medical equipment, instruments and machinery is imported," he stated.

Recently, the business has scaled to new heights as in November 2023, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) invested $50 million ( Rs417 crore) in Investcorp-backed Global Dental Services, which runs Clove Dental. It was also recognized for being the Top Tech Driven Dental Chain by Times Business Awards 2023. It has effectively fused technology to revolutionize the dental industry across India.