October 9, 2026

Wally Expands Oral Care, Outro Tackles Medication Tapering, PepsiCo Rethinks Snacks

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The next wave of health businesses is showing up in unexpected places.

Wally scales preventative dental care

Wally raised $25M in Series A funding to build a more preventive, consumer-focused dental care model.

  • Led by Maveron, the round will help Wally expand from 15 locations to 100 by the end of 2027, starting with Washington, DC, Atlanta, Austin, and Miami.
  • The company charges members $249 per year for unlimited cleanings and diagnostics, without insurance.
  •  Its clinics use AIRFLOW technology for cleanings, digital imaging, 3D scans, saliva testing, and AI-assisted diagnostics for 50K+ members.

Moving away from reactive treatment and toward a subscription model, dental care companies are building around prevention, transparency, and more frequent visits.

Outro builds the off-ramp

Outro Health raised $7M to scale its deprescribing platform, which combines personalized tapering plans, clinician check-ins, symptom tracking, and AI tools.

  • Outro’s antidepressant programs use hyperbolic tapering, adjusting the pace around the patient rather than a fixed prescription schedule.
  • Now Outro is exploring applications across mental health, sleep, ADHD, and weight loss medications.

As more drugs become long-term treatments, deprescribing is emerging as a missing part of the prescription lifecycle.

PepsiCo cuts guidance

PepsiCo lowered its full-year earnings forecast as its North American business continues to struggle.

  • The company still beat quarterly expectations with $25.27B in revenue. Meanwhile, North American beverage volume fell 2% and food volume was flat.
  • Lower prices, more marketing, and products positioned around simpler ingredients, protein, fiber, functional hydration, and zero sugar are improving volume trends, but the company’s core carbonated soft drinks are still lagging.

For Pepsi, the challenge is figuring out which parts of the portfolio fit where consumers are spending now — and how much they’re willing to pay.

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