Virtual veterinarian care platform Dutch raised 20 million dollars in Series A funding led by Forerunner Ventures and Eclipse Ventures. The San Francisco-based company’s latest round comes seven months after its market launch and brings its total funding raised to 25 million dollars. Dutch utilizes licensed veterinarians and provides a digital health platform for pets and their families to make pet care more accessible.
The platform was launched in July 2021 and was inspired by Dutch founder and CEO Joe Spector’s personal experience, who realized there was an opportunity to create a modern form of accessible veterinary care after seeing that his brother’s dog was being left untreated. He noted that many pet owners wait until their pet is experiencing a much larger issue so that they can make the most of one vet visit and just one fee, but pet owners shouldn’t have to do so anymore.
Dutch, since its launch, has served over 25,000 pets through 100 licensed veterinarians. To get started with the platform, pet owners are asked to provide a few details, after which they can set up a time for a video call. Once you’ve completed your first visit, you can reconnect with a vet at any time through the platform.
As for the new funding, Spector says Dutch will use it to invest in its intellectual property and grow its electronic medical records database to make it easier for pet owners to collect and share their pets’ data and prescriptions. The funding will also be used to grow its pharmacy network to enable same-day and next-day delivery. In addition, Dutch plans to hire across various divisions and double down on customer acquisition tools while also expanding its veterinary network.
As for the future, Dutch plans to build out its membership perks and also introduce more ways for customers to choose how they want to communicate based on the condition that their pet is in.
Dutch’s Series A funding follows the 5 million dollars that had been funded by Jimmy Fallon announced last year. The seed round was led by Forerunner Ventures and included the participation of Bling Capital and Trust Ventures.