Animal wellness startups can fetch capital and business development support through a new Vancouver-based venture fund and studio.
Alex Chieng,
“Pet health is one of the fastest-growing industries on the planet, but early-stage founders are starved for capital and support.”
Pawsible
Pawsible Ventures has launched its inaugural, $10-million fund to support early-stage pet health startups with capital, incubation, and distribution services. The venture studio will hold quarterly cohorts where entrepreneurs and veterinarians co-create and validate new products.
Pawsible was co-founded by Shafin Diamond Tejani and Alex Chieng to fill a gap for early-stage, pet-focused startups digging into the $250 billion USD global pet health and wellness market. Chieng will lead the fund and studio, bringing experience in the space as the founder of the veterinarian communications platform Vetsie.
“Pet health is one of the fastest-growing industries on the planet, but early-stage founders are starved for capital and support,” Chieng said in a statement. “With Pawsible, we’re not just investing, we’re building.”
Image courtesy LinkedIn
Tejani is the CEO of publicly traded technology investor and accelerator Victory Square, which is backing the fund with capital. Victory Square has a similar venture arm for healthtech, but with a less furry focus. Victory Square will use its existing distribution partners, including clinics, pharmacies, and lab systems, to take Pawsible companies’ products out for a test walk.
“We’ve built the pipes that connect innovators to patients in human health — now we’re opening those pipes to animal health,” Tejani said in a statement.
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The $10-million fund will be deployed into as many as 20 startups across the world over the next three years, both through the studio and in external companies. Its initial checks range from $100,000 to $500,000, with room for follow-on investment. The platform’s first cohort will focus on solutions in veterinary care, practice management, diagnostics, biohealth, insurance, automation tools, pharmaceuticals, and wellness.
“Our goal is to create a long-term platform that bridges human and animal health, helping founders move from concept to scale through capital, incubation, and real-world distribution support,” Chieng wrote in a LinkedIn post.
Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by Hannah Lim.