Scooch: The Future of Pet Health with AI-Powered Care, Virtual Check-Ups, and More!
The Leap Venture Studio blog series is back for another exciting year! In March 2024, six innovative early-stage pet care startups joined the 12-week program to accelerate their ventures.
These companies partnered with experts from Mars Petcare and Michelson Found Animals, gaining access to venture capital investment, mentorship, and tailored programming designed to help meet their individual needs.
Plus, for the first time one company joined the Leap Venture Studio as a company of impact, where they received an award to further their exceptional level of social impact for both pets and their people.
Scooch is an AI-powered platform that helps pet parents identify potential health issues through a quick online check-up and receive personalized, vet-approved treatments. It offers an AI chat bot for triaging concerns, 24/7 tele-vet access for further assistance, and tools to track pet’s health.
Baris Ozaydinli, CEO and Founder
Tell us about your startup
Baris: Scooch is a next-gen pet health subscription designed to take the guesswork out of pet care. It empowers pet owners to diagnose, treat, and prevent common health issues from home.
With Scooch Health, our AI-powered app, subscribers get access to virtual check-ups, 24/7 video vet support, personalized health reports, reminders, and built-in pet insurance. Plus, our premium, human-grade supplements target everything from digestion and anxiety to joint health and more.
Rio, our AI assistant (named after my dog), learns from each check-up to offer smarter insights and solutions. Whether navigating puppyhood or supporting senior pets, Scooch is here to make pet parenting easier.
How has your startup made a difference for pets?
Baris: Scooch has improved the lives of over 15,000 dogs in the UK, offering treatments to prevent and manage painful conditions while saving pet parents both time and money.
More than 10,000 dog owners have used Scooch to tackle Anal Gland issues, saving an average of £500 per dog each year (totalling over £5M in annual savings). Similarly, over 7,000 pet owners have helped their dogs with allergies and itching, saving up to £900 annually on vet and medicine bills (amounting to more than £6.3M in savings each year)!
Lastly, over 5,000 dog owners have identified their pets’ health issues using the Scooch Health app, completing over 14,000 check-ups and leveraging Rio AI and 24/7 video vet support for quick, actionable insights.
What are the greatest challenges you’ve faced as a startup founder and how have you overcome them?
Baris: As a repeat founder, I know how tough it is to get team members, investors, and stakeholders excited about a new idea. Post-Covid, the pet care boom led to a surge in startups, making the industry crowded and early-stage funding even harder to secure.
Convincing investors to back Scooch wasn’t easy. We focused on launching an MVP quickly, gaining traction, and proving we could execute on our bold vision. But even with strong early results, VCs didn’t bite. So, I turned to my network of tech founders and previous investors, and when that wasn’t enough, we ran a crowdfunding campaign.
It was tough. Countless calls, content creation, and updates — but it paid off. We surpassed our goal by 420%, attracted prominent angel investors, and oversubscribed our round. Many of those early investors remain invaluable, offering their time, insights, and connections.
What is your biggest takeaway from the Leap Venture Studio?
Baris: I got to meet many great founders and more importantly lovely humans during the program. It is true that pet lovers are really great and generous humans!
Getting to learn origination stories, challenges, and unique insights from fellow pet care founders during the program and establishing friendships for life was priceless.
The Leap Venture Studio team was also very friendly and helpful making the overall experience fun, engaging, and valuable for all of us.
Last but not least, I had the opportunity to meet some very interesting people from Mars Petcare which I look forward to continuing collaboration with. It is great to have such high-caliber partners in such a tough business climate for an early-stage founder.
What advice would you give fellow pet care founders just starting their journey?
Baris: Starting a new startup is easier than ever, but securing funding and turning it into a successful, sustainable business is more challenging than ever. I see many founders eager to run before they’ve learned to walk. My advice to anyone considering a new startup: take the time to think carefully, do your due diligence, and truly understand the problem you’re trying to solve.
What unique insight or unfair advantage do you have as a founder to champion this problem and create a solution that people will actually pay for? If you were the investor sitting across from yourself, would you invest in you and your startup? If the honest answer is yes, then go ahead. If it’s no, seriously reconsider.
The startup world is filled with passionate founders with big dreams who crashed and burned due to a lack of due diligence. I don’t mean to sound pessimistic, there are countless opportunities and problems to solve. But to succeed, you need a true founder-problem fit, a unique insight, and a viable idea that can grow into a sustainable business.
And let’s not forget, that success in startups is often a mix of hard work and luck. So, to all the founders out there, best of luck, we could all use a bit of it!
Tell us about your pet(s)!
Baris: During the Covid lockdown, my family kept urging me to get a dog. Having grown up with four cats, birds, an aquarium full of exotic fish, and the occasional puppy visitor, I knew that being a pet owner was no easy feat. I also knew that once the excitement wore off, the responsibility would fall on me. After some resistance, I finally agreed to get a dog.
In late 2020, Rio, a Cavapoo, joined our family. From the moment he stepped foot in the house he instantly became the center of joy, laughter and happiness in our home. Rio became my sidekick and best mate, and yes, I was right — he quickly became my responsibility!
He is the perfect buddy, very friendly, gently and calm but playful. He always has energy to play and he is extremely fast for his breed and size. Despite his passion for play, he is never annoying for it. We are so happy to have him in our lives and wouldn’t change anything about him.
Rio is also the inspiration behind Scooch. My love for him, combined with my frustration with the pet care industry, drove me to channel my decades of experience in CPG products, brand, wellness tech, and AI into building Scooch.
To learn more about Scooch, visit their website.
If you are interested in connecting with their team, email us at leapventurestudio@gmail.com.
