ALPINE WHITE

ALPINE WHITE is a Swiss oral-care and teeth-whitening company based in Zurich and operated by Cobea AG [7]. It was founded by brothers Reto and Alexander Wälchli and sells at-home whitening products — strips, kits, toothpaste and a sonic toothbrush — alongside in-studio dental treatments. Its products are built around PAP, a peroxide-free whitening agent the company positions as a gentler alternative to conventional bleaching.

The brand combines a direct-to-consumer online shop with physical studios offering dental hygiene and bleaching, and it describes its purpose as making professional-grade oral care accessible at a fair price. By the company's own account it has served more than 250,000 customers.

ALPINE WHITE grew out of a personal problem. According to regional Swiss press, Reto Wälchli developed the first product during his apprenticeship because he could not afford professional bleaching and the American whitening strips he wanted were not sold in Switzerland; researching alternatives, he settled on PAP as a milder active ingredient [10]. The company tells a similar story on its own site, describing the business as "born from a personal need for professional-grade oral care."

The founding date is not entirely settled. The brand's own pages do not publish a founding year. Regional reporting places the start at 2014, describing the product's development during Reto Wälchli's apprenticeship [10], while a Crunchbase entry lists 2020, a figure that more likely reflects the registration of the operating company or the launch of the first studio [12].

The two brothers run the business together. Company filings list Reto Wälchli as board chairman and Alexander Wälchli as a board member, alongside Hannes Ruh. Swiss startup media has referred to the pair as the "Bleaching Brothers."

ALPINE WHITE is the consumer brand of Cobea AG, a company entered in the Zurich commercial register [7]. The brand presents Zurich as "the home of Alpine White," where it says it researches, designs and develops its products; Cobea AG's registered office, however, is in Dänikon, a municipality in the canton of Zurich [7].

In 2022 the company completed a seed financing round of 1.8 million Swiss francs. According to Zürichrundschau, the investors were Ertan Wittwer, associated with the dental-aligner brand Bestsmile, and Fabrice Aeberhard of the eyewear company Viu [10].

The company frames itself as bridging professional dental expertise and at-home care, with a stated mission, "rooted in Swiss craftsmanship," to create accessible oral-care products that "transform smiles and build confidence." Swiss coverage summarised the goal more plainly as enabling everyone to have healthy, white teeth at a fair price [11]. A recurring theme in the brand's materials is prevention: its founders have argued that with the right routine, dental visits can be postponed and in some cases avoided.

Positioning rests heavily on the idea of a gentler whitening method. ALPINE WHITE markets its formulas as peroxide-free and suitable even for sensitive teeth, contrasting them with what it calls "harsh alternatives."

The product range centres on teeth whitening. The whitening strips are presented as the bestseller, sold for use over several applications, and the catalogue also includes a whitening kit with an LED mouthpiece, whitening toothpaste, a sonic toothbrush and daily-care items [10]. Through its studios the company additionally offers professional services such as dental hygiene, bleaching and oral-health checks.

At the centre of the formulas is PAP (phthalimidoperoxycaproic acid). The company describes a patented whitening formula that uses PAP to "lift stains from the surface of your teeth, while protecting your enamel and maintaining your oral health" [4], and presents the ingredient as effective but gentler than agents such as hydrogen peroxide. ALPINE WHITE states that its products exclude hydrogen peroxide, triclosan, parabens and SLS.

The brand cites clinical and laboratory testing in support of these claims. It reports that in a trial "100% of the participants already had visibly whiter teeth after the 1st application," with teeth becoming "up to 7 levels whiter" after the seventh, and that no participant experienced sensitivity or pain [5]. It also points to an in-vitro study which, it says, found no effect on enamel microhardness or erosion compared with conventional whiteners. The company notes the trials were carried out for safety and efficacy, though it does not publish participant numbers, study protocols or peer-reviewed citations.

ALPINE WHITE makes a number of ethics and environmental claims. The company says it is certified vegan and cruelty-free by PETA, and carbon neutral through a certification from ClimatePartner [9]. It states that it neutralises CO2 across production, delivery and consumption, partly through minimal packaging [3].

The brand also describes two further commitments: a donation to the Swiss non-profit Wasser für Wasser for every product sold, which it says provides drinking water to poorer regions, and a toothbrush made in part from wheat-straw waste returned to the production cycle as raw material.

By mid-2022 ALPINE WHITE described itself as the market leader for whitening strips in Switzerland and had begun expanding abroad, with launches in Germany, Austria and China and a Brazil launch planned for that autumn [10]. In 2023 it moved into physical retail and services, opening its first studio at Bahnhof Stadelhofen in Zurich and announcing plans for six additional studios by the end of the year [11]. The company has since promoted a franchise model to grow its studio network.

ALPINE WHITE is active. Its website carries a current product catalogue and studio operations, a 2023 Cobea AG copyright line, and a claim of more than 250,000 customers. Beyond its Swiss base, the company has described distribution across the German-speaking markets and further afield, marketing both online and through its own studios.