Modern Animal Co-Founder and CEO Steven Eidelman
Modern animal
Veterinary company Modern Animal, which is co-founded and led by Under 30 award winner Steven Eidelman, announced today that it has raised $ 75.5 million. The funding comes from two (previously unannounced) investments last year: a $ 35.5 million Series A led by True Ventures and Addition, and a $ 40 million Series B led by the Founders Fund, which is also the 13th – Led Modern Animal’s million dollar seed round in 2019.
Eidelman, co-founder and CEO of Modern Animal, said their goal when starting the company was to make pet care comfortable for the 21st.
According to Eidelman, the stress and anxiety experience of being in the clinic as a pet owner is very expensive as no one else pays for the customer’s pet care (not the government, and usually not the company). Her goal was to make this experience worth the money and time.
“Most people think of pet companies that serve the pet themselves, but we think about how we serve people,” says Eidelman. “We see ourselves as the first human-centered veterinary company in many ways.”
In addition, Eidelman says the veterinary profession is going through a massive crisis, with churn in the industry extremely high, mainly due to stress and because veterinarians who graduate from 4 years of medical school face huge debts.
“There are a lot of great vets, but not enough,” says Eidelman. “Especially now, after the pandemic, everyone seems to have had a pet, so we wonder how we can create a more efficient and productive experience for practitioners.”
Eidelman says Modern Animal solves the problem through technology by creating efficiency and a smarter work model.
Modern Animal’s telemedicine offering is particularly popular, as it saves pet owners time and money as well as saving resources for veterinarians by eliminating the need to spend the time examining a likely healthy pet.
Modern Animal offers a membership model with an annual fee of $ 100 per pet that covers all exam fees and 24/7 telemedicine. The company also generates revenue by offering everything a general practitioner veterinary office would offer, with the exception of 24-hour emergency and specialist care (e.g., oncologists).
Modern Animal currently operates a location (opened April 2020) in West Hollywood that is busy with 4,000 active members and currently has a waiting list. Eidelman says each member spends about $ 1000 a year and comes to the clinic an average of five times a year, while interacting with vets about 40 times a year via telemedicine. The company plans to open about a dozen locations across California over the next 18 months.
West Hollywood Clinic by Modern Animal
Modern animal
Before co-founding Modern Animal, Eidelman (whose parents are Ukrainian immigrants), graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, worked as a management consultant at Bain, and co-founded a pet wearables company called Whistle, which sold for $ 117 million in 2016 Mars sold (thanks to Whistle in 2014, Eidelman was placed on the under 30s consumer technology list). Two years later, Eidelman co-founded Modern Animal with Ben Jacobs (co-founder of Whistle and currently board member of Modern Animal) and David Bowman (currently board member of Modern Animal).
The Los Angeles-based company currently has 80 employees, and with the 13.5 million seed round, the total investment in Modern Animal has grown to $ 89 million.
Tony Conrad, a partner at True Ventures, says there are a number of issues in the pet industry for consumers and veterinarians that he thinks are probably even more prominent in the case of Modern Animal.
“By addressing some of the challenges and stresses that veterinarians face, you create a culture that engages with end users: the pet owner and the animal itself, happier in a more honest and honest way,” says Conrad.
