As the government pushes for improvements in the pet insurance system, Petaverse (CEO Park Su-wang), a domestic pet tech company specializing in pet facial recognition, is gaining attention.
The government plans to activate pet insurance by allowing registration using biometric information such as iris or nose prints and permitting the establishment of insurance companies specializing in pet insurance. It is also promoting the creation of a one-stop system where pet owners can handle everything from insurance enrollment to claims and pet registration at a single location such as animal hospitals or pet shops.
On the 16th, the Financial Services Commission announced the "Pet Insurance System Improvement Plan" at the Emergency Economic Ministerial Meeting, jointly with related ministries. Through this improvement plan, the government stated that it will not only improve the pet medical infrastructure to activate pet insurance, which is one of the major national policy tasks, but also continuously strengthen the linkage and cooperation between animal medical care and insurance.
Accordingly, attention is focused on whether Petaverse, a leading domestic pet tech company specializing in pet facial recognition, can accelerate the market development of pet insurance.
Petaverse is a pet tech company based on pet facial recognition technology (hereinafter Pet FACE ID). Pet FACE ID is an AI-based pet facial recognition system that verifies not only the breed but also 1:1 identity information of pets through photos, videos, or real-life images. It does not require any device other than a smartphone, uses a biometric recognition method harmless to the pet’s body, and once a dataset is established, it can verify identity through facial recognition of cats.
Recently, efforts to register pets using biometric recognition have been spreading among local governments as well. Currently, local governments such as Seoul City are reportedly in discussions regarding the distribution of contact-based nose print registration solutions with biometric recognition specialist company Union Community and pet startup Petsnis.
Petaverse is also expected to play an active role in the field of pet registration through biometric recognition. Pet FACE ID can recognize cats’ faces, contributing to cat registration. Cats have been considered a challenge for nose print recognition due to low recognition rates, but facial recognition can complement this and improve existing issues.
Jung Han-beom, head of external cooperation, said, “The current animal registration system requires mandatory implantation or attachment of identification devices, which many people avoid, resulting in low registration rates. The technology possessed by Petaverse overcomes the limitations of existing technologies, expands the scope to include cats, increases registration rates, enhances the effectiveness of the current animal registration system, and is expected to act as a catalyst in applied industries such as pet insurance.”
Petaverse has not only registered this technology as a domestic patent but also obtained a U.S. patent. The company has actively secured technological credibility and expertise by recruiting Kim Ik-jae, director of the KIST AI & Robotics Research Institute and an authority in facial recognition research and development, as an outside director. Since Petaverse has already signed contracts and is cooperating with multiple insurance companies, attention is focused on what role it will play as a new player at the turning point of the pet insurance market.
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