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Toothpick Is Aiming To Digitize Dentalcare In The UAE & Beyond
The Dubai-based dental health startup has ambitious plans to revolutionize the way we approach oral health.
Last year, the global dental market’s value was estimated at nearly $40 billion. Despite being immensely profitable, the sector remains decidedly old-school in its approach to digitization and cloud-based solutions. For that reason, startups have enormous potential to help dentalcare providers streamline their operations and patient journeys while enhancing supply chains.
One of those startups, known as Toothpick, is a homegrown, UAE-based venture that allows dentists to find products and services in their local marketplace and matches them to various financial solutions.
Toothpick is another success story from AREA 2071, the government-funded startup accelerator helping Dubai become a leading player in the world’s interconnected digital economy. The startup is the first healthtech innovator globally to attempt to digitalize the dental industry and has acquired over 50,000 subscribers, 390 local suppliers, and sold nearly 70,000 products.
Although founded and based in Dubai, Toothpick has expanded its services into Egypt, Lebanon, and Qatar while recently signing agreements for the Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti markets. The company’s next target regions are Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and, if successful, the lucrative Asian and American markets.
Also Read: How To Find The Best Remote Work Opportunities In The Middle East
“We were inspired by the leadership and vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to aim as high as possible. Being immersed in the spirit of Emirates Towers and seeing the motivational quotes from the UAE’s leadership on a daily basis instilled confidence. We have attempted to integrate the UAE’s approach to problem-solving into our thinking and company structure, which has led us to achieve some significant milestones and will propel us to further success,” says Sary Azakir, Managing Partner of Toothpick.
As part of Toothpick’s pre-seed funding round, the company raised $2.8 million and is set to generate over $15 million during its Series A Round.
News
Google Releases Veo 2 AI Video Tool To MENA Users
The state-of-the-art video generation model is now available in Gemini, offering realistic AI-generated videos with better physics, motion, and detail.
Starting today, users of Gemini Advanced in the MENA region — and globally — can tap into Veo 2, Google’s next-generation video model.
Originally unveiled in 2024, Veo 2 has now been fully integrated into Gemini, supporting multiple languages including Arabic and English. The rollout now brings Google’s most advanced video AI directly into the hands of everyday users.
Veo 2 builds on the foundations of its predecessor with a more sophisticated understanding of the physical world. It’s designed to produce high-fidelity video content with cinematic detail, realistic motion, and greater visual consistency across a wide range of subjects and styles. Whether recreating natural landscapes, human interactions, or stylized environments, the model is capable of interpreting and translating written prompts into eight-second 720p videos that feel almost handcrafted.
Users can generate content directly through the Gemini platform — either via the web or mobile apps. The experience is pretty straightforward: users enter a text-based prompt, and Veo 2 returns a video in 16:9 landscape format, delivered as an MP4 file. These aren’t just generic clips — they can reflect creative, abstract, or highly specific scenarios, making the tool especially useful for content creators, marketers, or anyone experimenting with visual storytelling.
Also Read: Getting Started With Google Gemini: A Beginner’s Guide
To ensure transparency, each video is embedded with SynthID — a digital watermark developed by Google’s DeepMind. The watermark is invisible to the human eye but persists across editing, compression, and sharing. It identifies the video as AI-generated, addressing concerns around misinformation and media authenticity.
While Veo 2 is still in its early phases of public rollout, the technology is part of a broader push by Google to democratize advanced AI tools. With text-to-image, code generation, and now video creation integrated into Gemini, Google is positioning the platform as a full-spectrum creative assistant.
Access to Veo 2 starts today and will continue expanding in the coming weeks. Interested users can try it out at gemini.google.com or through the Gemini app on Android and iOS.
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