Pet tech grows up: when novelty tools become the data layer for care

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📈 A bite-sized stat tastier than kibble: The same vet procedure can cost 2–3x more, with no warning

Data from the American Animal Hospital Association and Nationwide Pet Insurance shows that routine procedures, such as dental cleanings, blood panels, and diagnostic imaging, often vary by 2–3x depending on the clinic and geography. Dental cleanings alone commonly range from ~$300 to $1,000+.

At the same time, average veterinary prices have risen by roughly 40% over the last five years.

🐾 The purr-spective: Uncertainty has become a first-order problem in pet care. When cost and timing are opaque, owners delay decisions and providers struggle to plan. That friction is increasingly shaping where pet tech actually creates value.

🎾 What we’re chasing: Where pet tech is reducing surprise

Preventive care moves upstream

At CES 2026, radar-based monitoring systems originally designed for human health showed how non-contact sensing can track respiration, activity, and sleep patterns without wearables. In pet care, this logic is already visible in products like Petkit smart feeders and fountains, which establish daily intake norms, and behaviour-focused wearables from Tractive and Fi, which monitor changes in activity and routine rather than single-point metrics.

What matters isn’t any individual datapoint — it’s the ability to spot small deviations before they escalate into acute issues.

🐾 The purr-spective: Earlier detection shifts care into a cheaper intervention window, where advice, diet changes, or low-touch treatment can replace emergency visits and complex procedures.

Membership and subscription models smooth cost shocks

As monitoring moves upstream, payment models are following. Subscription pet food, clinic wellness plans, and membership-based care are reducing the friction for owners to commit to ongoing care — not at the moment of crisis, but at the moment of habit.

Brands like The Farmer’s Dog, Butternut Box, and KatKin normalise recurring spend through food, while platforms like Snout bundle preventive services, payments, and care plans into predictable monthly pricing.

This is about removing the psychological pause that often delays care until symptoms worsen.

🐾 The purr-spective: Predictable spend encourages earlier engagement, steadier use for providers, and fewer high-variance outcomes driven by delayed decision-making.

The boring parts of care quietly matter most

For all the innovation in monitoring and diagnostics, many care gaps still come down to logistics. Missed reminders, hard-to-book appointments, unclear pricing, and slow follow-ups are often the reasons pets don’t receive care, not owner intent.

Practice management platforms like ezyVet and Shepherd focus on these unglamorous workflows: scheduling, reminders, billing, records, and follow-up communication. By reducing friction for clinics, they indirectly improve compliance and continuity for pet owners.

🐾 The purr-spective: The market is splitting between tools that add features and systems that remove friction. The latter may be less visible, but they compound faster — and are harder to replace once embedded.

🐕‍🦺 The long leash: From novelty gadgets to the data layer behind care

The quiet innovations coming from CES

CES didn’t look like a pet industry moment, and that’s exactly why it mattered.

There were few overt pet launches, no breakout pet tech trends, and little mainstream attention on companion animals. Instead, CES surfaced the enabling infrastructure that pet care has been waiting for: cheaper sensors, longer battery life, edge AI, ambient monitoring, and subscription-ready hardware.

None of this was marketed for pets. But all of it is now viable because of pets.

The constraints that previously limited pet tech, such as power, cost, connectivity, and reliability, are no longer bottlenecks. What remains is distribution. Pet care still moves through vets, insurers, landlords, and food brands, not app stores or retail shelves. CES underscored that innovation has outpaced adoption, and that the next phase is about embedding, not launching.

CES showcased progress that compounds quietly, shows up late in headlines, and only becomes obvious once it’s already entrenched.

Read the full article.

From fresh food to a pet platform

Direct-to-consumer pet food is already moving in this direction. In our conversation with Jason Fiedler, he pointed to brands like The Farmer’s Dog and Butternut Box not just as premium food companies, but as data businesses in disguise. Through subscriptions, they’re tracking how often customers reorder, when portions change, how diets evolve, and when people are at risk of churning.

Over time, that information shapes product tweaks, pricing decisions, retention strategies, and overall lifetime value. The food is still the product, but the real asset is the feedback loop behind it.

Read the full article.

💸 Clawing in cash: $300M+ across 27 deals in recent raises in pet tech

12 Pharmacy (Tokyo, Japan): 12 Pharmacy provides specialized veterinary pharmacy services tailored for animal hospitals. The company supports clinics with prescription fulfillment, medication sourcing, and pharmaceutical compliance, enabling veterinarians to deliver consistent and high-quality treatment. The company raised an undisclosed amount in Series A funding.

BlueSky At-Home Veterinary Care (Wilmington, DE): BlueSky At-Home Veterinary Care delivers mobile and in-home veterinary services, offering preventative care, diagnostics, and treatment directly at pet owners’ homes. The company raised $730K in early-stage funding.

Cat Capital (Kunming, China): Cat Capital operates a pet insurance and healthcare financing platform offering financial products tailored to pet owners. The company raised $1.7M in seed funding.

Creature Comforts (London, UK): Creature Comforts provides in-home pet end-of-life and palliative care services. The company supports families with compassionate, veterinarian-led services during critical life stages. Creature Comforts raised $18M in Series A funding.

Dr. Paws (Bengaluru, India): Dr. Paws operates a veterinary clinic network delivering accessible and standardised pet healthcare services. The company focuses on preventative care, diagnostics, and treatment across its clinics. Dr. Paws raised $3.5M in pre-Series A funding.

Guapeco (Florianópolis, Brazil): Guapeco operates a pet telehealth and services platform connecting owners with veterinarians and care providers. The company raised $340K in early-stage funding.

Happy Cat Dog (Oita, Japan): Happy Cat Dog provides consumer pet products and services focused on everyday pet care and lifestyle needs. The company serves pet owners through a range of retail and service offerings. Happy Cat Dog raised an undisclosed amount in funding.

KatKin (London, UK): KatKin is a direct-to-consumer fresh cat food subscription service offering personalized meal plans made from human-grade ingredients. The company focuses on nutrition-led formulations to improve feline health outcomes. KatKin raised $50M in later-stage VC funding.

Kibus (Barcelona, Spain): Kibus develops an automated fresh pet food cooking appliance that prepares meals on demand using natural ingredients. The company raised $1.2M in funding.

Lassie (Stockholm, Sweden): Lassie operates a digital pet insurance platform combining coverage with preventive care incentives. The company uses behavioural data and education tools to reduce claims frequency and improve long-term outcomes for pet owners and insurers. Lassie raised $75M in Series C funding from Balderton Capital, Felix Capital, Inventure, and others.

Lifet (Seoul, South Korea): Lifet develops digital solutions for veterinary clinics and pet healthcare providers. The platform offers tools for medical data management, client communication, and operational efficiency to improve care delivery. The company raised an undisclosed amount in funding.

Loyal (Dallas, TX): Loyal develops longevity therapeutics designed to extend the healthy lifespan of dogs. The company is focused on FDA-approved drugs targeting age-related metabolic decline, aiming to shift veterinary care from disease treatment to proactive lifespan extension. The company raised $100M in Series C funding led by age1, with participation from Baillie Gifford and existing investors.

Love, Nala (Lake Elsinore, CA): Love, Nala is a direct-to-consumer premium cat food brand focused on high-quality, nutrition-first products. The company offers carefully formulated recipes designed to support feline health and wellness. Love, Nala raised an undisclosed amount in funding.

Marley Health (London, UK): Marley Health delivers digital pet health services including video consultations and preventative care tools. The platform improves access to veterinary expertise through remote services. Marley Health raised $9.3M in funding.

MI:RNA (Edinburgh, UK): MI:RNA develops canine diagnostic and genetic testing solutions using molecular biomarkers. The company enables early disease detection and personalized veterinary care. MI:RNA raised $3.6M in seed funding.

My Brown (Seoul, South Korea): My Brown develops pet nutrition products focused on microbiome health and functional ingredients. The company uses science-backed formulations to support digestive health and overall pet wellbeing. My Brown raised $11.5M in Series A funding.

NoseID (Fukuoka, Japan): NoseID develops AI-based dog identification technology using unique nose-print recognition. The platform provides secure identity verification and lost-pet recovery support. The company raised $740K in seed funding.

OurPetPolicy (Boise, ID): OurPetPolicy develops pet policy management software for rental property owners and managers. The platform helps landlords define pet rules, verify animals, manage compliance, and reduce unauthorized or fraudulent pets across portfolios. The company raised $8M in Series A funding.

PlutoVets (Stockholm, Sweden): PlutoVets operates a digital-first veterinary care platform offering remote consultations and integrated pet health management. The company raised an undisclosed amount in funding.

ProTag (Te Aroha, New Zealand): ProTag builds smart animal monitoring and tagging technology for livestock and companion animals. The platform enables location tracking, health monitoring, and data-driven management. The company raised an undisclosed amount in funding.

RetrievAir (Wilmington, DE): RetrievAir builds drone-enabled lost-pet recovery technology designed to locate missing animals using aerial search capabilities. The company raised $780K in funding.

Right4Paws (Coimbatore, India): Right4Paws operates a marketplace connecting pet owners with service providers including grooming, boarding, training, and veterinary care. The platform streamlines discovery, booking, and payments. The company raised $1.6M in Series A funding.

Snout (US): Snout operates a preventative-care membership and financial platform for veterinary services, combining billing, insurance, and payment solutions. The company raised $10M in equity funding alongside $100M in debt financing.

Swipet (Madrid, Spain): Swipet operates a digital pet insurance platform offering flexible and transparent coverage for pet owners. The company simplifies policy management, claims processing, and pricing through a mobile-first experience. Swipet raised $400K in early-stage funding.

Thera-Clean (Coquitlam, Canada): Thera-Clean manufactures microbubble pet bathing systems designed to improve skin and coat health while reducing chemical use. The company raised $75K in early-stage funding.

Traini (Palo Alto, CA): Traini develops an AI-powered dog behaviour and cognition collar designed to analyse activity, emotional states, and behavioural patterns. The platform provides insights to improve training, well-being, and owner understanding. The company raised $7.5M in seed funding.

Uah Pet (Shenzhen, China):Uah Pet designs and manufactures smart pet gadgets and accessories focused on convenience, safety, and connected pet care. The company raised an undisclosed amount in Series A funding.

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