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Investors are betting on a burgeoning area in the consumer landscape — pet telehealth startups.

Why it matters: Projected to grow by more than 50%, the pet care industry has captured significant investor attention.

Driving the news: Amazon is weighing expanding into veterinary telehealth in its latest bid to compete with Walmart, which offers the service to Walmart+ subscribers, CNBC reported last week.

What they're saying: "There's a superior opportunity for full wallet share, and a real, life cycle relationship," Forerunner Ventures partner Nicole Johnson tells Axios.

"You get these pets early, and you can really take care of them for the rest of their lives as their health needs change," Johnson says.

What pet telehealth offers is convenience, says Eclipse managing partner Lior Susan.

For pets with chronic conditions, you're able to "close the loop at home" instead of going through the hassle of hopping in a car to visit the vet, he says.

"We've had human telemedicine…going strong over a decade," says Joe Spector, CEO of pet telehealth company Dutch. It has "created access, lowered costs, and brought more people into the system. I don't see why that wouldn't translate into pet care as well."

Of note: Earlier this month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom greenlighted a bill to allow pet owners to access licensed veterinarians for their pets' care through video technology, paving the way for other states that restrict this or have limitations to follow suit.

Yes, but: With a purely telemedicine startup, vets "haven't quite gotten to the point where they can see something on a pet and feel comfortable prescribing or making a determination about what it is," says Heath Butler, venture partner at Mercury Fund.

"What you really have to do is build a business that will meet the vet where they are," Butler says.

One of Mercury's portfolio companies, veterinary software startup TeleVet, rebranded as Otto Vet in August to emphasize the company's broader approach to helping vets.

"The real issues [vets] have are happening before the telemedicine visit and after the telemedicine visit," Butler says.

Otto pivoted from pure telemedicine to become a customer engagement and workflow management platform for vet operations.

The big picture: Pet telehealth is "always part of the whole 360 solution," Dutch's Spector says.

For vets, telemedicine helps the industry reduce burnout by giving vets more flexible schedules from the safety of their homes.

State of play: Pet tech startups have garnered about $558.5 million in the third quarter, compared with $209.1 million in the same period last year, per PitchBook data.

This month, Dutch, helmed by Spector (also a founder of Hims), raised an $18 million Series B.

In the summer, Airvet raised an $18.2 million Series B round.

Otto snagged a $43 million Series B in the summer in a round led by Mercury Fund.

Mixlab, a New York-based provider of compounded veterinary medications and pet wellness products, raised $10 million in a Series A extension in August. The company raised $20 million in its initial Series A round.

Last year, the Vets, the Wilmington, Del.-based pet care services company, raised $40 million in seed funding.

Reality check: Fuzzy, a San Francisco pet telehealth startup that raised $80 million in venture capital, shuttered in June, according to reports.

The bottom line: "I would expect to see more and more pet care needs met online," Johnson says, especially in light of the shortage of registered veterinarians and qualified employees.

Pet care's future is online

Even Amazon is weighing expanding into veterinary telehealth

illustration of a tabby cat looking at a glowing laptop 

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Investors are betting on a burgeoning area in the consumer landscape — pet telehealth startups.Why it matters: Projected to grow by more than 50%, the pet care industry has captured significant <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="investor attention" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/pro/retail-deals/2023/02/27/investors-pet-care-long-term-investment" data-vars-content-id="be76f3d3-5da4-4f53-9478-39aca26cc506" data-vars-headline="Pet care&#x27;s future is online" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/pro/retail-deals/2023/02/27/investors-pet-care-long-term-investment" target="_self">investor attention</a>.

Pet care's future is online

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