Pet telehealth company Airvet closes on $18.2M to embark on enterprise focus
Summary
Pet ownership exploded during the global pandemic, and veterinarians are still struggling to keep up with demand.In fact, a Mars Veterinary Health report from 2022 highlighted a need for more than 41,000 vets to enter the industry over the next decade in order to meet demand. For example, Fuzzy, a company that created a digital pet care network of veterinary professionals, and raised $80 million in venture-backed funding since its founding in 2016, reportedly shut down in June.Watching what happened to Fuzzy, and trying to keep a company going amid a market shift, put things into perspective, Werber said.When the markets shifted, it put back into focus that you cant just build fast and recklessly, he said. We had to take hard looks at our model and our strategy.Business approaches in the pet tech space run the gambit, but have largely focused on direct-to-consumer healthcare or helping veterinarians more easily manage their practices amid the demand.For Airvets part, Werber said he saw an opportunity to target business-to-business. The company has since built up a base of employer clients, including Adobe, Ceridian and Rexford Industrial, eager to offer an employer-sponsored benefit for employees with pets.Werber declined to go into specifics about customer or revenue growth, but said he expects Airvet to reach over 50 customers in the next year and that revenue was growing at a faster rate than before.Meanwhile, the companys Series B round was led by Mountain Group Partners with participation from Canvas Ventures, Headline, Burst Capital and a group of strategic investors, including VCA Animal Hospitals founder Bob Antin. As part of the investment, Byron Smith, managing director at Mountain Group Partners, will join the companys board.The funding will support the continued expansion of Airvets partnership with enterprise and employer clients, on product development and to build out the companys sales and marketing teams.The biggest plans for us now are to really build this category into a ubiquitous category for all employers and enterprises who want to acknowledge, support and celebrate pet families and provide services and resources for them in areas where they are really struggling, Werber said.