Peeva, a Buffalo startup who recently gave their semi-final pitch to 43North, has announced an important milestone in their development. The company is launching a beta-test program with the National Veterinary Association (NVA) that involves more than 150 veterinary hospitals.
Currently, there are four major brands of pet ID chips in the United States, with even more throughout Europe. Few veterinary hospitals, clinics, and rescues have the ability to scan all available brands. The company’s product solves this problem with the first universal RFID scanner that can read all brands of pet microchips, regardless of frequency or data format. The scanner is cloud-connected and ties into Peeva’s central registry where they are pairing millions of pet ID’s with medical records, thanks to their partnership with the NVA.
Co-Founder and CEO, Michael Hamilton, was inspired to launch his first startup after his childhood dog was stolen.
“We never got him back,” says Hamilton. “So when I got Peeva, my Puggle who I named the company after, I registered her microchip right away. But I was sad to learn that no truly universal scanner can read the range of microchips encountered by vets and shelters when they receive missing pets, so pets are seldom recovered.”
Of the beta program partnership with the NVA, Hamilton notes, “We are now pulling and pairing data for 150 veterinary hospitals. There are hundreds of startups and apps trying to penetrate into the electronic medical records (EMR) market in the vet space; we’re an alliance, not a potential competitor to those companies. They love us!”
Hamilton was born and raised in Buffalo, graduated from UB and took his career path to New York City. He moved back to Buffalo in 2010 and started Peeva last year. Peeva has five employees, is a client of LaunchNY, has been accepted into StartupNY programs, and currently works at the DIG co-working space in the Innovation Center.