ZUG, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 27, 2026--
vVARDIS Holding AG (“vVARDIS”), a high-growth dental medtech company pioneering non-invasive cavity treatment, today announced a strategic minority investment from Apollo-managed funds (“Apollo Funds”). The investment will support vVARDIS’ next phase of global growth and commercial expansion, including the continued rollout of its Curodont ™ suite of products. The investment establishes vVARDIS as one of Europe’s few privately owned, billion-dollar-plus, healthcare companies. vVARDIS’ founders and co-CEOs, Drs. Haley and Goly Abivardi, will retain a substantial majority shareholding in the company.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260415938477/en/
vVARDIS is redefining the treatment of cavities through its Curodont ™ technology, the first and only commercially available non-invasive peptide-containing formulations clinically proven to treat tooth decay. Curodont ™ supports enamel repair by facilitating the formation of crystalline mineral structure throughout the affected area, giving dental professionals an easy-to-use, restorative option to treat early-stage cavities as an alternative to traditional drilling. Since the launch of Curodont ™ Repair Fluoride Plus in the U.S. over two years ago, it has been used to treat approximately 3 million teeth, is now present in nearly 20 percent of general dental practices nationwide 1 and is one of the fastest-growing dental products in the U.S. 2.
“vVARDIS has built a differentiated business, with Drs. Haley and Goly Abivardi pioneering a new category in dental care backed by peer-reviewed clinical studies,” said Jeremy Honeth, Partner and Andrea Vanni, Managing Director at Apollo. “Apollo Funds’ investment supports the company’s continued expansion in key markets across the US and Europe, bringing this restorative therapy to more practices and patients worldwide.”
“Curodont ™ fills a longstanding gap in dentistry: when prevention fails, dentists now have a quick, easy-to-use non-invasive treatment free of drilling and needles. The rapid adoption of Curodont ™ reflects the urgency of that unmet need,” said Haley Abivardi, DMD, co-CEO and co-founder of vVARDIS. “Apollo Funds’ investment strengthens our commercial foundation in the US and Europe and enables us to scale this environmentally sustainable technology across markets.”
Goly Abivardi, DMD, co-CEO and co-founder of vVARDIS, said, “Our mission is to bring a medical, science driven approach to dentistry. Using peptide-containing formulations, our non-invasive technology is an innovative treatment designed to treat tooth decay without drilling and without polymer materials. Apollo Funds’ investment reinforces our leadership in generative dentistry and advances the future of oral science.”
Tooth decay is the world’s most prevalent non-communicable disease, affecting nearly 90 percent of US adults. Oral health is closely linked to overall health, and untreated cavities can contribute to serious chronic conditions, including a 26 percent increased risk of all-cause mortality 3. Recently published WHO guidelines reinforce vVARDIS’ mission of early intervention and non-invasive care, as the company targets an addressable market of over $30 billion in the US.
The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
About vVARDIS AG
vVARDIS is a disruptive Swiss healthcare company in the dental med-tech sector headquartered in Zug, Switzerland that offers groundbreaking, non-invasive solutions for dental professionals with the Curodont ™ brand of products. Founded by Drs. Haley and Goly Abivardi, DMDs, sisters, internationally renowned dentists, innovators and self-made serial entrepreneurs, vVARDIS is the result of more than 25 years of research, paired with the commitment of its founders to make an impact on people's lives, especially the underserved.
vVARDIS' mission is to expand access to novel approaches that create new standards of care in dentistry with the purpose of improving oral health – the foundation for overall health. Backed by 25 years of research and more than 10 years of use in clinical practices globally, vVARDIS’ products and science are supported by more than 250 scientific publications, including meta-analysis, peer-reviewed and long-term peer-reviewed real-world evidence clinical studies, with a documented success rate above 90%. Curodont ™ products are already presented in the lectures of renowned universities as a standard of care for the treatment of early decay. vVARDIS was awarded the 2026 Innovative Company of the Year and is a member of the World Economic Forum Innovator Communities. For more information, visit vVARDIS at www.vVARDIS.com and www.linkedin.com/company/vvardis .
About Apollo
Apollo is a high-growth, global alternative asset manager. In our asset management business, we seek to provide our clients excess return at every point along the risk-reward spectrum from investment grade credit to private equity. For more than three decades, our investing expertise across our fully integrated platform has served the financial return needs of our clients and provided businesses with innovative capital solutions for growth. Through Athene, our retirement services business, we specialize in helping clients achieve financial security by providing a suite of retirement savings products and acting as a solutions provider to institutions. Our patient, creative, and knowledgeable approach to investing aligns our clients, businesses we invest in, our employees, and the communities we impact, to expand opportunity and achieve positive outcomes. As of December 31, 2025, Apollo had approximately $938 billion of assets under management. To learn more, please visit www.apollo.com.
Photo credit: Dr. Mehrdad Razaghy, DDS
Photo credit: Jos Schmid, Photographer
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV prayed Monday in the Vatican with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, and vowed to keep working to overcome differences “no matter how intractable they may appear,” in a historic meeting with the first female leader of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion.
The encounter between Christianity’s two most famous religious figures would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, given the divisions between their two churches over women’s ordination and Mullally's appointment.
Leo acknowledged that “new problems” in their relationship had been added onto “historically divisive issues.” But he nevertheless vowed to continue the tradition of past popes to continue to try to reunite the churches.
Anglicans split from Rome in 1534, when English King Henry VIII was refused a marriage annulment. Despite a formal theological dialogue that began in the 1960s, big differences remain, especially over the Church of England’s decision to ordain women. The Roman Catholic Church reserves the priesthood for men.
Leo quoted Pope Francis as telling Anglican primates that “it would be a scandal if, due to our divisions, we did not fulfil our common vocation to make Christ known.”
“For my part, I add that it would also be a scandal if we did not continue to work towards overcoming our differences, no matter how intractable they may appear,” Leo said.
Mullally, whose appointment has split the already divided Anglican Communion, arrived early to meet with Leo. She thanked Leo for welcoming her on her first foreign visit since she was installed last month.
After meeting in Leo's library, the two then prayed together in the Urban VIII Chapel inside the Apostolic palace for what the Vatican said was a “moment of prayer.” Mullally’s office said Leo presided but that they both “said the grace together.” The Vatican only released photos of the meeting in Leo's library, which was closed to the press as was the prayer in the chapel.
In her remarks to Leo, Mullally said both of them were called to preach the Gospel with “renewed clarity.”
“In the face of inhuman violence, deep division, and rapid societal change, we must keep telling a more hopeful story: that every human life has infinite value because we are precious children of God; that the human family is called to live as sisters and brothers,” she said. “We must therefore work together for the common good — always building bridges, never walls; that the poorest among us are closest to the heart of God.”
Mullally is on what she has called a four-day pilgrimage to Rome that has included visits to the main pontifical basilicas, where she has prayed at the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul and met with top Vatican officials.
Lambeth Palace says her visit is designed “to strengthen Anglican–Roman Catholic relations through prayer, personal encounter, and formal theological dialogue. It aims to deepen bonds of communion, affirm a shared witness, and encourage ongoing collaboration at both global and local levels.”
The first female Anglican priests were ordained in 1994, its first female bishop in 2015, and now Mullally as the first archbishop of Canterbury.
Leo and Mullally have already exchanged greetings, with Leo congratulating her on her installation last month but acknowledging she was taking over at a “challenging” time and that differences still divide the Anglican and Catholic churches.
He nevertheless vowed to continue dialogue, and in October Leo welcomed King Charles III and Queen Camilla to the Vatican, where they prayed in the Sistine Chapel. Charles is the titular head of the Church of England.
That event, Oct. 25, marked the first time since the Reformation that the heads of the two Christian churches had prayed together.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the first formal ecumenical statement between the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches, signed in 1966 at St. Paul’s Outside the Walls basilica by Archbishop Michael Ramsey and Pope Paul VI.
Mullally for her part has expressed solidarity with Leo’s peace message, after the American-born pope was harshly criticized by President Donald Trump for his calls for peace in Iran.
Popes past have met with female Christian bishops and archbishops: Francis met in 2015 with Archbishop Antje Jackelén, the first woman to lead the Lutheran Church of Sweden. Francis also invited the female Anglican bishop, Jo Bailey Wells, into a private meeting of his cardinal advisers in 2024 to discuss the role of women in the Catholic Church.
George Gross, an expert on theology and the monarchy at King’s College London, said the meeting was historic, particularly given the Vatican doesn't recognize the female priesthood.
“If we were to go back several hundred years, it’s unthinkable,” he said. “It’s the fact that the pope is willing to meet, but in itself it also shows the difference, the gap.”
Gross said the prayer was clearly an attempt to show the two churches united, especially in confronting the global conflicts and projecting a message of unity. Such optics, he said, were in continuity with the visit to the Vatican in October by the king.
“It’s a doubling down of togetherness,” he said.
Her appointment though has split the Anglican Communion, whose 100 million members in 165 countries are deeply divided over issues such as the role of women and the treatment of LGBTQ+ people. Many in England and other Western countries hailed her appointment as a historic breaking of a stained-glass ceiling.
But the communion’s largest and fastest-growing churches in Africa belong to a conservative group called the Global Anglican Future Conference, or Gafcon, which has sharply criticized her appointment and threatened a final break. In the U.S., the conservative Anglican Church in North America formed in a break from the more liberal U.S. and Canadian Episcopal churches and has signed onto the Gafcon statement opposing Mullally’s appointment.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Leo XIV leaves after presiding over Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican during which he made ten new priests, Sunday, April 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
FILE - Sarah Mullally speaks to the public after the Enthronement Ceremony installing her as archbishop of Canterbury in Canterbury, England, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, the first woman ever to lead the Church of England. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)
