Reshaping pet insurance and reducing IoT risks

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📈 A bite-sized stat tastier than kibble: Pet insurance on the rise

Pet insurance adoption is low at about 5%, but growing quickly

While pet ownership levels are at a high, pet insurance numbers aren’t at the same level. Only 4% of dogs and about 1% of cats are insured. But the number of insured pets is quickly growing at around 25% YoY.

🐾 The purr-spective: Pet insurance is considered P&C insurance, not health insurance, as pets are seen as property. This may have been more true in the past, but today 53% of pet owners believe their pet is more a part of their family than their childhood pet was.

Pet insurance adoption struggles from a few issues:

1. Non-digital channels: Insurtech companies like Lemonade helped solve this challenge with digital solutions.

2. Non-essential until it's too late: That is, until you need financing for a $10k surgery or realize your pet has a pre-existing condition. Pet owners need to be aware of pet insurance before they have an issue. Tesco puts pet insurance in front of UK shoppers and Costco is doing the same with Figo. Cue insights from the Odie founders below!

3. Far from human health insurance: We need to get closer to human health insurance by offering (a) negotiated rates, (b) direct pay to vets–think Nibbles, or (c) premium rebates due to lower risk populations is key.

🎾 What we’re chasing: New advances in pet tech

Dogs aren’t just property, they're family. Welcome Odie co-founders, Miles and Zabrina

Pet insurance offerings may all seem similar, but if you look beneath the surface, the coverage, rates, pre-existing condition coverage, and direct-pay-to-vet options, in particular, vary significantly. We recently spoke to Miles and Zabrina Thorson, co-founders of Odie Pet Insurance, to hear how they’re reshaping pet insurance distribution and coverage to make it an easy choice for pet parents to prioritize their financial health and their pet’s health.

Read the full article here.

Pet tech IoT opens up security vulnerabilities

Pet care apps and devices, increasingly popular for feeding and health monitoring, often lack robust security measures, according to a recent study, conducted by Newcastle University and the University of London. While these technologies are readily adopted by pet owners, user security and privacy remains an underresearched area.

This vulnerability can lead to personal data breaches, including sensitive information about both pets and their owners. The study also highlights a concerning gap in legal regulations specific to pet tech, emphasizing the need for stronger privacy protections.

🐾 The purr-spective: The desire to monitor our pets at all times and fear of pet theft have led to a rise in IoT for pet monitoring. A study found that almost 75% of pet owners take additional security precautions to protect their pets. 

When people install sensors in their houses or put them on their pets, those devices collect data via cameras, microphones, and geodata, and could be used to exploit someone’s security and privacy. We’re still far from seeing legislation to ensure privacy protection—so our love of pets and a desire to find low-cost solutions could be at the cost of cybersecurity and our privacy.

IDEXX moves to build pet owner engagement software for vets

Set to release in the U.S. in March, Vello, a pet owner engagement software by IDEXX Laboratories, is changing the way that veterinary practices interact with pet owners. Many vet practices use old-school booking methods (hello, pen and paper) and face no-shows. Vello sends pet owners automated reminders and allows for online scheduling, resulting in a 19% reduction in no-show rates among early adopters.

🐾 The purr-spective: IDEXX is the Goliath. It is a $50B public pet diagnostic and software player for vets. Their move into a full-stack vertical SaaS solution has big indications for improving efficiencies for veterinary practices. The jury is out on how the new solution will be perceived by vets, and how tech-forward the solution is, but there is no question that (a) they have the distribution and access to potential customers and (b) this will scare away many startups selling software to vets.

Sponsored content

Veterinarian Electronic Assistant (VEA) is a patented AI SOAP note generator powered by Generative AI. VEA helps Veterinarians complete their SOAP, Treatment Plan Estimates, and Take-home instructions automatically. 

Fully integrated with multiple PIMs, Antech, and more, while you’re seeing your next patient, VEA can receive the diagnostic results in real time and finish your SOAP and take home instructions, meaning you can close your practice on time.

Makes you wonder...

New California bill seeks to bar landlords from banning pets in their rental units

Assembly Bill 2216, authored by San Francisco Democrat Matt Haney, would prohibit landlords across the state from instituting blanket bans on common household pets in their rental units. The bill defines common household pets as domesticated animals, such as a cat or dog, that are kept for personal instead of commercial purposes.

🐾 The purr-spective: If the bill passes, it may offer equity to the millions of pet owners in California. There are an estimated 12M renting in CA with a pet, and almost 1M are doing so secretly because their landlords ban pets. The current two-tiered system punishes people with pets. This bill, likely to be resisted by landlords, may also help shelters that are facing record numbers of pets. Many are likely given up because they are unable to find pet-friendly housing.

Service members get new benefit: pet travel allowance

As of Jan. 1, active-duty service members are now authorized to receive reimbursement for costs related to the relocation of one household pet due to a permanent change of station move.

🐾 The purr-spective: This change comes as the administration tries to help personnel and family members improve their quality of life, especially as it relates to the burden of relocation. Pet relocation is quite expensive and can cost an average of $1,500 within the U.S. and up to $5,000 for moves abroad.

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