‘My Health Record for pets’ startup Vedi scores $3 million treat to go global

Perth veterinary tech startup Vedi has raised $3 million as it looks to become the pet version of the federal government medical database My Health Record.

The funds came from two international investors, with MSD Animal Health, a division of Merck & Co., once again backing Vedi, joined by pet-focused New York VC Companion Fund, and will be used to expand Vedi’s medical record technology for pets in Australia and into the UK.

Vedi was founded in 2017 and rebranded from VetDB in August last year. Cofounder and CEO Dr Steve Joslyn, a specialist veterinary radiologist, was inspired to launch the tech startup after growing weary of data mix-ups and manual record keeping processes for the pets he saw.

The result is a universal medical record platform, accessible via smartphone, with smart data collection tools, so vets to access pet health records via the animal’s microchip. Vedi is used by industry leaders such as Vetpath, Central Animal Records, Vetwest and Petstock, supporting 78,600 animal patients including more than 54,000 dogs, 12,000 cats and nearly 3,000 horses.

Veterinarians can use Vedi to capture health data with easily, including taking a photo of a vaccine vial with a smartphone, then locking the data to the animal’s microchip for others to access, share and update on over the animal’s lifetime using the platform.

Dr Joslyn said Vedi’s medical records are saving time for busy vets.

“Vedi is radically improving the quality and accessibility of veterinary health data and creating a smarter, connected healthcare system,” he said.

“Vets have been anticipating the move to modern, digitised veterinary care for so long. We’ve taken it upon ourselves to become the trusted medical record that connects different veterinary providers so animals can access the best quality care anytime, anywhere.”

Better data also has the potential to transform pet care, Dr Joslyn said.

“Collecting better quality health data over an animal’s lifetime will open the doors to research opportunities, biosecurity programs and novel lifesaving treatments,” he said.

“Vedi means that soon animals and vets will have a better connected, streamlined healthcare system than the human world.”

Oleksiy Nagornyy, lead of companion animal technology solutions at MSD Animal Health said the company had supported Vedi from the early stages of its development.

“We look forward to the growth and development of Vedi’s microchip-enabled health record technology, which can bring more efficiency and accuracy in the management of health records to the veterinary community, while positively impacting the health and well-being of pets,” he said

“These kinds of processes previously required time-consuming admin like filling out forms, writing on samples or calling for a courier – with Vedi, they can be done at the touch of a button.”