VetCode, a pet care start-up in Egypt announced that it raised a new seed fund but did not disclose the size of the investment. This is a new announcement according to MENAbytes. Pmaestro, a Cairo-based technology company and accelerator led the investment.
VetCode through its mobile apps, enables users to request veterinary care, social care and training services for their pets. Founded earlier this year by Ahmed AlBadawy and Ahmed Maher, users can request veterinarians for home visits or find the nearest veterinary clinic. It has a feature that lets users buy, sell or adopt pets.
This comes four months after launch, with 50 percent month-over-month growth. The Egyptian pet-care start-up will use the seed funding round to expand within the market with scalable operations.
“We are activating our fourth new service (veterinary home care services) in addition to expanding geographically the 3 main services (pets training care – grooming care – social care) in Egypt. Also, we are expanding our veterinary care services to cover exotic animal health and marine life health,” said Ahmed AlBadawy, the company’s CEO.
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Inspired by the story of a Bengal cat that died due to the unavailability of adequate treatment, El-Badawy was inspired to found a smart interactive platform to help pet owners reach veterinarians at a tap of a screen.
According to PETS International, Egypt accounts for 50 percent of the regional consumption on pets in the Middle East and Africa. In 2017, Egypt spent over $450 million on the pets’ industry and the consumption would reach $600 million in the next three years in pet care services, according to El-Badawy.
It claims to have services available in 12 cities in Egypt with over 200 veterinary clinics on their network. The apps are currently being used by over 30,000 users. The start-up was among the recent winners of RiseUp’s pitch competition.
According to figures from the Egyptian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ESPCA), 8 million pets are raised in Egyptian households – 5 million cats and 3 million dogs. On the other hand, Egyptian streets struggle to shelter almost 50 million stray dogs and more than 100 million stray cats. This makes the Ministry of Agriculture back the start-up, and also work together with the ESPCA to help the association solve the problem of stray animals on Egyptian streets.