Fintech champions animal welfare with an independent and fully customisable pet wellness platform, just for vets.
SYDNEY, Australia: Knose Everyday Pet Care, a Fintech company, announced today that it has launched a pet wellness platform for independent vets following an oversubscribed $500k seed capital raise. The platform provides the technology and administration necessary for vets to successfully operate pet wellness subscriptions. The service takes care of all the technology, communications, compliance, administration, and product delivery leaving vets free to run their practice and look after their clients and their pets.
Australians love their pets and boast one of the highest pet ownership rates in the world. There are more than 24 million pets in Australia with 62% of households owning at least one. Companion pets fuel the $12.2b pet care industry with $11b (>90%) spent on cats and dogs. This represents a staggering 34% increase over the last 3 years! What is even more interesting is that the change in spend is not due to an increase in pet numbers, Australians are simply spending more on their pets.
According to Animal Medicines Australia (AMA), there has been a marked change in the role dogs and cats play in Australian households since as recent as 2013. The so-called rise of the ‘fur baby’ has Aussies spending more on premium foods, services, and health care. The latest trends include activity monitors/ wearable technology and even pet jewellery!
Unfortunately, not everyone has been a winner…Pet owners have increasingly sought advice from the internet and specialty stores instead of their local vet and despite the increased spend on our pets there is a surprisingly low compliance rate with recommended vaccinations and parasite protection. In 2016, 21% of dogs and 35% of cats have not been taken to the vet and only 53% of dog owners and 47% of cat owners reported they took their pet for vaccinations. And many more pets are left exposed to serious preventable diseases as compliance with parasite prevention treatments dwindle.
While the pet industry has undergone rapid growth, veterinarians have not experienced the same trend. In the last three years vets have only experienced 10% growth, a staggering $630m difference if they had the same growth rate as the broader pet industry.
Nathan Harris, Chief Operating Officer and co-founder stated “I believe vets are an important part of any community and the decrease in owners seeking advice from highly trained professionals is disturbing. We see a lot of innovation in the pet industry but it has largely been for the benefit of the larger corporates and actually to the detriment of the local vet. We want to be here for vets, to innovate for vets and make the vet front and centre of the pet industry’s growth”.
The Knose Everyday Pet Care platform will increase the bond between vets and pet owners by providing vets capabilities to make it easy for owners to follow their advice and reduce the barriers for them to visit the vet if they have a concern. The Knose Everyday Pet Care platform places the local vet back at the centre of pet care.
The Knose Everyday Pet Care platform is fully customisable both from an inclusions and pricing perspective. Harris continued “It was really important to us that we build a platform that allowed vets to set their own protocols and pricing”. The high level of customisability supports vets’ independence and caters for the needs of pet owners across every location of Australia.
The Knose Everyday Pet Care platform allows vets to get their own pet wellness subscription to market quickly, easily, and affordably. The Knose team can also help with training staff in how to discuss the plans with clients, marketing to existing clients and to attract new clients.
Knose Care Pty Ltd
Knose Pet Care is a FinTech start-up headquartered in Sydney, Australia. It offers veterinary businesses a full-service subscription management platform that includes banking, administration, communications, stock management and delivery, and reporting. In addition, clients are provided with full training and a full marketing program — all the vet has to do is confirm the services they want included and get back to helping more pets.
