Shifting pet care from reactive to proactive.
Originally Featured on Woof News
Issue #109
Roy Ben Tzvi
October 15, 2024
This week we spoke with Asaf Dagan DVM (Chief Veterinary Officer and Co-founder of PetPace) and Lior Abraham (President of PetPace). The pet care industry is experiencing a technological revolution, and at the forefront of this transformation is the rapidly growing smart collar market.
The future of pet care is proactive vs reactive and pioneering this revolution is none other than PetPace.
How does PetPace differ from the other smart collars, and how does one stand out in this evolving market?
Asaf Dagan – PetPace is unique in the world of wearable devices and smart collars for pets because we are the only ones who can truly assess a pet’s health status.
The PetPace collar is unrivaled in the scope and breadth of data it collects. It is the only one that can collect pulse, temperature, respiration, HRV, and posture, in addition to activity and location data, and it does so continuously throughout the day, regardless if the pet is resting at home or playing in the park.
Having this rich and comprehensive data enabled us to develop unique AI-based analytics that accurately predict the pet’s health status and quickly detect changes in it.
Attempting to provide health information based on activity alone, as our competitors do, falls short of achieving this goal. Just as when we go to the doctor, they take our vitals as the first step, so does the PetPace collar. It is imperative to continuously track all vitals and other health-related metrics to assess pets’ health condition reliably.
What’s your background? Can you share the origin story of Pet Pace?
Asaf Dagan – As a veterinarian for many years, I was frustrated by the fact that all too often, we discover serious medical conditions when they are already advanced and treatment options are limited. The reason is that common chronic diseases tend to develop slowly and gradually, and pets, having strong natural instincts, actually do their best to hide symptoms. So, the idea was that if we can measure the same things that we measure at the hospital and become aberrant during sickness, but do it continuously throughout the pet’s life and in their natural surroundings, we will be able to detect diseases early while we still can do something about it.
Running a hardware business presents unique challenges. Can you talk about your approach to manufacturing, supply chain management, and ensuring product quality?
Lior Abraham – Our product quality is one of our top priorities, and we invested heavily and continue to invest to ensure the quality of our products throughout the entire lifecycle of their manufacturing and fulfillment.
Our manufacturing is conducted according to the highest industry standards and protocols. We built automation testing that ensures the integrity of each and every product during and after manufacturing. We also conduct sampling and manual testing to guarantee the highest quality possible. We have FCC, CE, and ISED certifications.
What have been your most successful marketing channels?
Lior Abraham – We market through different channels, e.g., social media, Google Ads, mailing lists, affiliate programs, referral plans, collaborating with partners, and a robust communications plan. Using a combination of all channels is the most effective way to market our product to pet owners, vets, researchers, and potential strategic partners.
Where do you see the pet wearables market in 10 years and how do you see it specifically helping the veterinary industry currently and in the future?
Asaf Dagan – I believe that the wearables market will experience massive growth. There is a real need, a real pain point, and a slick and efficient solution, and I’m certain that the robust pet parent market will adopt it readily. In 10 years, I believe that pet wearables such as PetPace, will be mainstream and embraced by pet parents and their vets. I see telemedicine as a particularly buřgeoninng area of pet care where PetPace can deliver real-time data to provide better outcomes in virtual exams. Think of pre and post-surgical procedures, drug efficacy, triage to determine if a pet needs to go to the ER and so many more scenarios.
I think wearables will significantly improve our knowledge and understanding of pets’ health and disease and will revolutionize veterinary medicine. For the first time, vets will be able to see how their patients are doing in their natural surroundings, offering a reliable basis for a renewed understanding of pets’ pathologies and responses to treatments. We see a trend in interest for Veterinary practices that are incorporating virtual care into their practices where wearable technology will be a game changer.
Tell us more about the joint study you did with Pet Acoustics to better understand the effect of music on pet stress levels.
Asaf Dagan – Pet Acoustics create music designed specifically for dogs and cats to effectively reduce stress. They used PetPace collars to scientifically prove this effect, which was already apparent from behavioral observations.
In this study, we followed dogs’ and cats’ stress markers and compared them with or without Pet Acoustics music in the background. The results were positive—both dogs and cats showed decreased stress levels when Pet Acoustics music was played compared to times when the music was not played.
What are some crucial metrics that pet parents are missing out on that PetPace can help with?
Asaf Dagan – Pet parents can observe their pets’ behavior. However, they cannot track biometrics, such as temperature, pulse, HRV, etc., that are essential for a true health assessment of the pet. Behavior (activity) alone is not enough because activity is influenced by many factors (e.g., weather, lifestyle, character, physical conditions, etc.) that have nothing to do with the pet’s health.
Physiological markers, on the other hand, do not lie. If they begin to deviate, either with regard to the pet’s own baseline or in comparison to other similar pets it indicates something fundamental about the pet’s health and state of well-being.