In a bid to address pet owners’ demand to find affordable, convenient veterinary care options for their pets, 917Ventures, the largest corporate venture builder in the Philippines, has created an online pet care platform PetPal earlier this year.
Launched as a vet teleconsultation service, PetPal has recently started to offer at-home grooming services, home vet visits, lab tests, and vaccinations.
“We started as a telehealth platform but since then we have extended our services to offer more services that go beyond health and into the general well-being category. We are working towards becoming the pet care super app in the Philippines, and introducing services beyond pet telehealth is the first major step towards it,” 917Venture Head of Ideation and Acceleration Glenn Estrella told TNGlobal in an interview. “Of course, with strategic partners, we hope to bring this super-app to more markets beyond the Philippines.”
PetPal also plans to launch an online pharmacy and marketplace for other pet-related goods, supplies, and other services. The company also expect to launch a mobile app version early next year.
“We are also looking into the possibility of expanding across the region in the near future. While we strongly believe that we have the technology to bring our services outward, we also recognize the immense potential of offering a telehealth platform like PetPal in the region where 70 percent of Thais, Vietnamese, Filipinos, and Indonesians own pets,” he added.
According to PetPal, the Philippines has seen a significant increase in pet ownership, with 79 percent of the population now owning a pet, one of the highest percentages in Asia. With the surge in pet ownership, many struggle to find affordable, convenient veterinary care options for their beloved animals with just one vet available for every 10,000 pet owners in the country.
Carlo Flordeliza, a Senior Venture Builder at 917Ventures, conceived the idea of PetPal after recognizing a gaping need for a comprehensive online pet care platform.The online pet care platform also aimed to broaden access to veterinary services and champion responsible pet ownership.
PetPal also looked beyond the Philippines market. the pet care market in Southeast Asia grew to a sizeable $1.6 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow to $3.08 billion by 2032.
Wholly-owned by Globe Telecom, 917Ventures is the largest corporate venture builder in the Philippines. 917Ventures said it seeks to solve the pain points of consumers and businesses through digital solutions and build a digital nation that is loved and admired through its digital solutions and ventures. 917Ventures sees itself as the Y Combinator of the Philippines, having already scaled successful companies like GCash, the country’s only double unicorn.
In the interview, Estrella also shared PetPal’s plans, the potential and opportunities the company sees in the pet care market in the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia, among others.
Below are the edited excerpts:
Could you share more about PetPal’s short-term and long-term plans?
We started PetPal in February to address the gap between the demand and supply for veterinary care – with only one vet available per 10,000 pet owners in the country.
Launched as a vet teleconsultation service, PetPal has recently started to offer at-home grooming services, home vet visits, lab tests, vaccinations, and annual teleconsultation subscriptions with the PetPal Club. We also plan to launch an online pharmacy and marketplace for other pet-related goods, supplies, and other services. We also expect to launch a mobile app version early next year.
We are also looking into the possibility of expanding across the region in the near future. While we strongly believe that we have the technology to bring our services outward, we also recognize the immense potential of offering a telehealth platform like PetPal in the region where 70 percent of Thais, Vietnamese, Filipinos, and Indonesians own pets.
What are the products and services PetPal plans to offer? Why? What other potential and opportunities PetPal see in the pet care market in the Philippines?
Pets are more than just furry companions. People now see them as beloved members of the family, and that brings more thought and consideration into caring for pets and ensuring they live their best lives than they used to be. In the Philippines, 79 percent of all households own pets, but they struggle to find affordable and accessible care for them. The Philippine market isn’t only mature enough to embrace pet telehealth but there is a clamor for telehealth services.
Initially, PetPal provided purely vet teleconsultations, however, seeing the need and the opportunity to offer more services, we are now offering at-home grooming services, home vet visits, lab tests, and vaccinations.
There is huge potential to completely digitalize the pet healthcare experience. Our first step is to launch our mobile app, which we plan on doing within the next year. We also plan to launch an online pharmacy and marketplace for other pet-related goods, supplies, and other services.
We are also continuing to onboard more veterinarians and clinics every day to serve pet owners. Ultimately, our mission with PetPal is to provide comprehensive pet care services for every pet and their pet parents.
Any plans to expand beyond the Philippines market? When and in which market? What are the opportunities and potential seen in Southeast Asia?
Yes, the broader Southeast Asian (or even Asia Pacific) market holds tremendous potential for pet care. It is the biggest market for pets and by extension, pet care.
The pet care industry in Southeast Asia is growing at a very fast rate. It reached $1.6 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow to $3.08 billion by 2032. With the rapid rise of the digital economy, we see an opportunity to bring pet care and similar services to people on the go. This way we do not just bring convenience and affordability to the market, but also accessibility. We are open to exploring partnerships with potential investors and ecosystem enablers like us across the region to bring PetPal to new markets.
We believe that there’s a lot of potential for PetPal to help address the “pet-vet” gap across the region, especially in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam where 70 percent of the population owns pets.
Working with a top venture builder like 917 Ventures enables PetPal to grow sustainably through a network of new partners and also through their experience building successful tech startups in the country and beyond.
How is PetPal positioning itself? more towards a telehealth platform for pets? Or a super-app with more services available or a one-stop center besides a telehealth platform?
We started as a telehealth platform but since then we have extended our services to offer more services that go beyond health and into the general well-being category. We are working towards becoming the pet care super-app in the Philippines, and introducing services beyond pet telehealth is the first major step towards it.
Of course, with strategic partners, we hope to bring this super-app to more markets beyond the Philippines. We envision PetPal to become every pet owner and their pets’ companion at every life stage, helping them by providing convenient access to pet care.
How does PetPal aim to create new revenue streams and generate jobs in the pet care sector? What is PetPal’s strategy?
As of now we have more than 1,000 vets and 200 clinics on the platform and are always onboarding more. We partner with vets, clinics, and pet care service providers to enable them to reach a wider market through our platform, instead of running our own clinics. By partnering with vets, clinics, and other services, we fuel the demand for these services–allowing them to generate more revenue and jobs.
It is our goal to create a pet care ecosystem that will continue to spur the growth of the pet care industry while addressing any and all pet care-related needs.
What are the challenges PetPal faces in expanding its businesses? How to address these challenges?
On a macro level, the challenges we face are the challenges faced by the vet and pet care industry at large–shortage of vets and the challenge of digital transformation. Vets must digitize but part of that is ensuring you can upskill them as many vets are hesitant to adopt digital tools believing that care is best administered in person.
This is why, with PetPal one of our missions is to help these pet care service providers a platform where they can embrace digitalization while still providing the best care possible. With our chat-with-a-vet and telehealth solutions, we can provide vets and pet owners immediate access to consultations. We also offer vet home visits and even clinic scheduling and lab tests for cases where pets need to see their vets personally.
We also utilize our blog as a way to educate pet parents and champion pet care awareness so vets and pet parents can ensure that they are giving the best possible care for their pets.
As we continue to grow, another one of our challenges is making sure that our services are accessible through all devices, which is why we are currently developing a mobile app so more pets and pet owners can use our services. We are launching the app early next year.
There’s also the challenge of ensuring that we have all the services our customers need, that’s why we’re constantly onboarding vets and clinics but also introducing more pet care services including pharmacies and building a pet care marketplace.
Our challenges prove how much a service like PetPal is sorely needed in the Philippines and we’re happy to be able to address that need and help pets live their best lives.