附近上门

Frustrated by the expensive and thus exclusive veterinary industry, started in 2016.

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The San Francisco company just raised $8 million Series A, led by , upping its total funding to $12.5 million. The new financing will allow Fuzzy to continue to expand into new areas, scale its in-home visits, and build up its technology uses for telemedicine consultations. Separate from this financing round, the San Francisco-based company scooped up San Jose鈥檚 , which helps manage animals through a digital network with other pet owners. The company is excited about adding more of a pet owner network, and potentially even using Fetch Labs鈥� system to track missing pets.

鈥淧et health advice [today] is either your pet is fine, or your pet is going to spontaneously implode in five minutes,鈥� said co-founder over a coffee at Workshop Cafe, where he first thought of the company.

Let鈥檚 learn how Fuzzy helps stressed owners understanding whether their dog鈥檚 mole is just a mole, or a sign of an illness.

Pet Tech

It works like this: a worried pet owner can open up the Fuzzy application on their phones, snap a picture of their sick cat, and send it through to one of Fuzzy鈥檚 65 veterinarians. The company will then 鈥渢riage鈥� the type of request and answer accordingly. Since a lot of pet owners have similar questions, Bhettay says that it has sped up its response time as it grows. So far, the company has done between 60,000 to 70,000 consultations since starting in 2016, he estimates.

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 imagine the amount of poop pictures we have,鈥� Bhettay laughed.

The bigger pet and tech market is definitely full of massive companies like , , and the recently-public Chewy. However when it comes to telemedicine, Bhettay tells me that he doesn鈥檛 think there鈥檚 a front-winner in the veterinary market yet. Another even raised this week. Until the industry consolidates and matures, competition amid early stage companies will stay fierce. And Fuzzy鈥檚 new capital will help it keep up.

Illustration: .