NAVC Announces VMX 2021 Pet Pitch Competition Finalists

Listen to this article

Press release: NAVC

The North American Veterinary Community (NAVC) recently announced the five finalists for its fourth annual VMX Pet Pitch Competition. These startup companies will compete in a shark-tank style pitch competition, live from the Veterinary Meeting & Expo (VMX), the world’s largest gathering of veterinarians. They were selected from a competitive pool of 20 startup companies that will exhibit their products in the VMX Startup Circle.

The VMX Pet Pitch Competition and Startup Circle give new companies the opportunity to introduce its products, services and solutions to thousands of veterinary professionals and practice decision makers. The winner of this year’s VMX Pet Pitch Competition will receive a complimentary exhibitor booth at the Veterinary Innovation (VIS) Summit in Kansas City and an invitation to attend Purina’s Pet Care Innovation Network’s annual Innovation Summit — an invitation only event held at Nestle-Purina headquarters in St. Louis, MO. 

“The NAVC is thrilled to support these startup companies and help raise visibility for these exciting new products that will help our veterinary professionals deliver even better health care to our animals,” said NAVC CEO, Gene O’Neill. “The VMX Pet Pitch Competition and VMX Startup Circle give entrepreneurs the opportunity to bring their inventive ideas to life, network with global leaders in animal healthcare and receive mentorship and critical feedback to help accelerate their ideas into a thriving business.”

Five finalists chosen from the Expo Hall Startup Circle:

Mella builds remote wellness technology solutions for veterinarians and pet owners to better understand and track pet health. Mella provides proactive pet health monitoring that is non-invasive and integrated at multiple levels to facilitate the seamless sharing of patient data between veterinarians, pet owners, patient records and wellness platforms in real time.

QSM Diagnostics develops point-of-care diagnostics for rapid identification and monitoring of bacterial infections. Their devices will provide veterinarians with a diagnosis result allowing them to prescribe the proper course of treatment before clients leave the clinic.

Talkatoo is a desktop dictation solution that augments your current workflow by using speech-to-text capability with specialized vocabularies. With a Mac or Windows computer, veterinarians can spend less time writing notes and more time with their patients.

VetGuardian is the only zero-touch telemonitor for veterinarians that includes a live video feed and continuous readings of three major vital signs — temperature, pulse, respiration — up to five feet away, without physical contact or wires. Its advanced warning system tells veterinarians when animals are in danger.

Vetranomix is an innovative veterinary diagnostic laboratory that uses molecular technology to rapidly target infectious disease in animals. It uses PCR technology to identify pathogens causing illness.

The judges for the VMX 2021 Pet Pitch Competition are:

Gene O’Neill, NAVC CEO

Paige A. Allen, MS, RVT, NAVC President

Jay De Long, Co-Founder / Partner at Active Capital

Ken Niedziela, Editor, Today’s Veterinary Business

The VMX Pet Pitch Competition will be hosted live from the VMX Expo floor on Sunday, June 6 at 1:45 p.m. VMX is the largest and most comprehensive veterinary conference in the world and has held this competition since 2018. The NAVC has welcomed over 100 startup companies and awarded over $100K in monetary prizes thanks to the various industry sponsors who have supported this program since its inception.