Piavita attracts investors from the Silicon Valley

The round was led by True Ventures and joined by FyrFly Venture Partners, Zurich Cantonal Bank ZKB, and private investors. “We are excited to back the highly talented Piavita team in their mission to bring veterinary medical technology into the wearable, wireless, and prevention-focused future,” said Toni Schneider, partner at True Ventures. Toni grew up and went to high school in Switzerland and studied computer science at Santa Barbara City College and Stanford University. He is well known for his role as CEO of Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com. Toni Schneider and Piavita CEO and Co-Founder Dorina Thiess met first on Thiess’ trip to the Silicon Valley with the Venture Leaders Technology team.

“When we first met Toni in San Francisco in spring of 2017, we were experiencing strong customer interest even though our first product was still under development,” said Piavita CEO and Co-Founder Dorina Thiess. “We were sold out of pre-orders until our launch in Germany in mid-2017. We’re now looking forward to expanding production and delivering our product to more than 80 horse clinics and veterinary practices in Europe. We are thrilled to have the support of the True Ventures team as we launch Piavita globally.”

Today, Veterinarians spend the large part of their days manually recording patients’ vital signs. Alternatively, Piavita digitizes veterinary care with a comprehensive Vet System that allows veterinary practitioners to gain in-depth knowledge about the wellbeing of their patients from anywhere, at any time.

Piavita’s Vet System is comprised of a wireless, palm-sized measuring device, a belt that holds the device in place on the horse, a web app that allows vets to monitor and analyze patient health, and a base station that enables the full-scale transfer of recorded vital signs in real time. By combining proprietary sensor technologies with machine learning, Piavita can wirelessly measure vital signs including ECG, body core temperature, respiratory sequence and more at high precision, simultaneously, and without direct skin contact, i.e., through animal fur. This saves hours of manual work for veterinarians and the employees of horse clinics and veterinary practices.

Picture: Piavita CEO and Co-Founder Dorina Thiess and CTO Sascha Bührle

(Press release)