Bay Area startup Dutch is helping pets get the care they need by remotely connecting their owners with licensed veterinarians.
Dutch was created by Hims co-founder Joe Spector. At Hims, Spector helped build out the company’s national telemedicine and doctor network. He was inspired to apply the same concepts he introduced at Hims to the pet care space and eventually went on to found Dutch, which launched seven months ago.
“I can actually say ‘we move in dog years’ because, with our employee growth and other metrics, it certainly doesn’t feel like it’s been a few months,” Spector, CEO of Dutch, said in an interview with Built In. “I think we’re moving in lots of exciting new directions.”
Now, the company is receiving a fresh investment to keep things moving as it continues to scale. Dutch announced Thursday that it grabbed $20 million in a Series A round co-led by Forerunner Ventures and Eclipse Ventures.
“Our North Star is bringing as many services as possible to the customer on the customer’s time, and making it easy for the customer to access that information,” Spector said.
The pet tech platform, which originally launched in eight markets, has since expanded to cover the entire United States. While the pandemic helped to accelerate growth in the remote care sector, Spector isn’t worried about business slowing down in a post-pandemic future.
“Because people have seen the benefits of remote care, I think [current trends are] going to be permanent to some extent,” Spector said. “There are now more favorable conditions to owning a pet in the first place. So I think those are structural changes that are here to stay.”
Remote care, he says, isn’t just a net positive for pet parents — veterinarians also benefit. The ability to work a flexible schedule is an enticing option for veterinarians who have their own little ones to take care of.
“Almost 80 percent of veterinarians today are women and many of them end up being in charge of childcare and childcare duties,” Spector said. “And so having that flexibility ... has been a huge plus for veterinarians.”
Dutch has served over 25,000 pets to date with the help of over 100 licensed veterinarians, according to the company.
“We want to be seen as an integral part of the pet health care ecosystem,” Spector continued.
Following the latest raise, the company plans to further product development and expand its veterinarian network. It is Spector’s dream that one day Dutch users will be able to have all of their pets’ data stored on the platform, including their medical history.
Until then, Dutch remains focused on expanding both its customer base and the size of its team. Spector himself has invested a lot in creating a healthy, amicable company culture.
“We’re creating a place where we can have healthy conflict, we can have a place where people feel safe. People feel like this is a place where we can share innovative ideas,” Spector said in reference to his team. “The thing with innovation is that an amazing idea generally doesn’t arrive as an amazing idea. It usually arrives as a shit idea that over time becomes amazing.”
The pet tech platform is now hiring for nearly 20 roles spanning its engineering, operations and marketing teams.
Dutch has raised $25 million in venture capital financing to date, according to the company.
