Vet-AI, an award-winning Leeds-based startup which formed to give pet owners access to affordable and convenient veterinary care, has exclusively partnered with one of the UK’s largest pet insurers, Animal Friends.
Pet owners with insurance from Animal Friends will be able to check their animal’s symptoms, get advice on treatment or find out if they need to visit a vet clinic, through Vet-AI’s app, Joii. Policyholders can access unlimited, free video consultations with fully qualified and RCVS registered UK vets, which usually cost £20 per call.
Founded in 2017 and based in Nexus, University of Leeds, Vet-AI aims to improve the lives of animals by increasing access to vet care through Joii, and veterinary professionals who are leaving the industry due to the high pressures and stresses of clinic life. Joii launched in May this year and has over 10,000 registered users.
Animal Friends are the only insurance company founded on providing pet insurance as a means to help support animal welfare charities. Over the past 20 years, the insurer has donated £4million to charities worldwide and looks after over 800,000 cats, dogs and horses.
Paul Hallett, co-founder of Vet-AI comments:
“Animal Friends is a perfect partner for Vet-AI, not only do we share common goals around animal welfare and the profession as a whole, but strategically we are both laser-focused on the customer. In the coming few years we will support their customers by providing them with 24-hour expert-led care, at the click of a button. This will drive our business forward, helping us reach more pet owners and improve the care their pets receive.
“We want to build a long-term relationship and that includes co-creating new groundbreaking products together and offering Animal Friends customers a service no other insurer can.”
Wes Pearson, managing director of Animal Friends adds:
“This partnership demonstrates our commitment to providing the very best and most up to date service for each of our policyholders. Being able to access professional advice from the comfort of their own home will mean more animals receive the right care in a timely fashion. Until now there has been nothing between the dangerous practice of Googling your pet’s symptoms and deciding whether they need to see a vet, so it makes perfect sense for us to help solve that issue by introducing Joii to our customer journey.”
Vet-AI have been recognised by a number of industry awards in 2019. Shortlisted by TechCrunch as one of the Top 50 startups of 2019, featured in Startups 100 list 2019 and in the Disruption 50 Index.
