Ukrainian IT guys turned their diploma idea into a working business: in five months, the team conducted over 1,000 consultations, gathered a pool of 19 veterinarians, and is already helping animals in 20 countries. The focus is on emergency medical care online 24/7, even in frontline regions where veterinarians are physically inaccessible. We tell you how PetSOS.app works
Ukrainian IT guys turned their diploma idea into a working business: in five months, the team conducted over 1,000 consultations, gathered a pool of 19 veterinarians, and is already helping animals in 20 countries. The focus is on emergency medical care online 24/7, even in frontline regions where veterinarians are physically inaccessible. We tell you how PetSOS.app works
PetSOS.app is a Ukrainian startup that combines pet care with modern technologies. A team of IT industry veterans has developed a convenient service for quick and professional medical consultation for pets.
The developers note that their mission is to make veterinary care available online 24/7 so that every owner can quickly receive professional advice, regardless of place and time.
Hanna Kolotushko, CEO of PetSOS.app with ten years of experience in backend development, said that the idea for the startup originally originated as a thesis project at a technical university.
We have four founders, we studied together at university. At first it was an idea for a diploma, but we got carried away, created a startup and it quickly turned into a business.
The founders of PetSOS.app brought to the startup their rich experience in the IT sphere, which together amounts to 39 years. For Hanna Kolotushko and Kateryna Gural, PetSOS.app is the main place of work, while the other co-founders Denis Popov (CTO) and Vadym Klymenko (CIO) combine work on the startup with part-time work in other IT companies.
We are all from the "IT" community with many years of experience. What unites us is our love for animals. We are passionate about it. We are all animal owners. Ani has three dogs and a cat.
In addition to the co-founders, the startup team consists of a marketing department, a finance person, and a medical director who is responsible for developing protocols and checking the quality of consultations. The team currently has about seven people, not counting the veterinarians who work under the marketplace model.
"The medical director is very experienced. She has worked in various clinics, is undergoing additional training in Germany, and is fully responsible for the medical service," the co-founders note.
All veterinarians have higher veterinary education, four years of work experience and undergo a thorough background check before starting cooperation. Most of the marketplace doctors have 8-9 years of experience. Currently, 19 veterinarians provide consultations on the platform.
Hanna notes that attracting doctors to the platform was easy. The startup has already formed a waiting list of veterinarians who have already been interviewed and selected, but currently there is no flow of clients to urgently need them.
The pet owner launches the bot on the petsos.app website or in Telegram , describes the symptoms, and a veterinarian will join the chat within 10 minutes. The service offers immediate consultations with therapists, primary diagnostics, advice on care and nutrition, recommendations on medications, interpretation of tests, and even advice on traveling abroad.
"Since PetSOS.app is a marketplace, we connect the client and the veterinarian. We have a pool of veterinarians with whom we work and to whom we distribute applications. They can provide their services at any time convenient for them, simply by connecting to the application," Kateryna explained the principle of operation.
A standard consultation for dogs and cats costs from 300 UAH, and at night (from 00:00 to 6:00) - 600 UAH. Consultations for exotic animals (birds, amphibians, rodents) cost 400 UAH for the initial consultation.
For doctors, working at PetSOS.app is primarily an additional income, as they can conduct consultations at a convenient time anywhere. The share of income received by veterinarians varies from 20% to 50%, depending on the type of consultation and specialization.
"Part of it depends on the type of consultation and the doctor's specialty, because, for example, exotic animals are a slightly different story. It is very difficult to attract doctors specifically for exotic animals, especially birds. Because there are very few specialists," Hanna explained.
Five months after launch, PetSOS.app has achieved significant results: over 2,000 registered users, 1,000+ consultations conducted, 6,500+ followers on social media, and 27% repeat customers. The customer satisfaction level is 4.8 points.
Early clients included anxious and inexperienced pet owners, animals stressed by clinics, veterinarians looking for extra income, and Ukrainian pet owners living abroad, as online consultation on the platform is much faster and cheaper.
PetSOS.app has already helped owners in more than 20 countries, including the US and Thailand. Patients have included dogs, cats, birds, rodents, ferrets, squirrels, an iguana, and even a horse.
"Recently, at 11:00 PM, a horse owner contacted us. The horse got tangled in wire and was injured near its hoof. The man uploaded a photo of the injury, our veterinarians calculated a literally "horse" dose of antibiotic online and advised the owner. The horse was able to get back on its feet," said Kateryna.
An important mission of the service is to assist clients from frontline and occupied territories, where access to veterinarians and pharmacies is limited.
"We had clients who were from the front lines in the occupied territories, who did not have access to veterinary care through relatives. There are no veterinary pharmacies in the occupied territories, there are very few veterinarians, and we are, in fact, their only chance for veterinary care," the co-founders note.
The startup is currently operating on a 200,000 UAH grant from the Ukrainian Catholic University. Although the platform is already making money, the founding team is still working without salaries, investing all income in development and paying for the services of veterinarians and other specialists.
"We work without salaries. We pay doctors, communications specialists, everyone except us," Kateryna noted.
The veterinary services market in Eastern Europe is forecast to grow to $2.31 billion by 2030, with potential revenue for PetSOS.app of $43.9 million.
The team's top priority is to attract investment. A subscription model will be launched in October of this year, providing discounts on personalized guides and medical kits for animals, as well as offering a vaccination calendar and a pet health record.
In addition, IT professionals will focus on further automation and implementation of AI for routing calls and selecting the best doctor.
