- Expanding Beyond Pet Healthcare to Elderly Care and Nursing: A New Horizon for the Care Industry
- From Checkup Demand Forecasting to Scheduling... Accelerating Development of AI-Based Operations System
Pelz (FELZ, CEO Kim Seungwoo), which has been offering a new alternative for pets and their owners who find it difficult to visit animal hospitals, has been selected for the TIPS (Tech Incubator Program for Startup) program and is now embarking on full-scale technological advancement.
TIPS is a startup growth technology development program run by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, which provides up to 500 million KRW in R&D funding for two years to startups recognized for their technological capabilities and growth potential. In addition, it offers up to 200 million KRW in supplementary funding for overseas marketing and other activities. This selection was made upon the recommendation of Antler Korea, a global venture capital firm and TIPS operating partner.
Pelz operates "PETing," a health checkup platform that allows pet owners to receive veterinary health examinations for their pets right at their doorstep. The main users are owners who have difficulty visiting animal hospitals, such as cat owners, households with multiple pets, and those without cars. Since the introduction of the service, there has been a noticeable change as owners who previously gave up on regular checkups are now starting to manage their pets' health.
For this TIPS project, Pelz will focus on advancing DBRAS (Demand-Based Routing And Scheduling), an AI-based operations system that optimizes mobile veterinary checkups, which is the core operating technology of PETing. This system automatically designs checkup schedules and travel routes based on reservation information and the characteristics of each pet (such as species, health status, and level of cooperation). Through this, Pelz is significantly improving operational efficiency and the number of daily checkups that can be performed.
Under the previous manual system, a significant amount of resources was required to coordinate checkup schedules and dispatch plans. However, DBRAS can dramatically enhance operational efficiency through features such as demand forecasting, prediction of checkup duration and dropout rates, optimal route calculation, and partial re-optimization. Kim Dongyun, CTO of Pelz, who is leading the development, stated, "When checkup demand is dispersed, a lot of resources are needed to manually adjust the schedule each time. With this selection for TIPS, we plan to further advance DBRAS technology to create an environment where more pets can receive regular checkups without stress."
Pelz also plans to develop DBRAS into a universal technology that can be applied not only to pet checkups but also to various industries requiring demand-based onsite visits, such as elderly care and home nursing services. As the importance of "visiting services" grows in an aging society, Pelz aims to expand the application of its technology from pet healthcare to people-centered care industries.
Meanwhile, Pelz is a startup founded by graduates of the Youth Startup Academy, which also produced Toss and Zigbang. Since its establishment in 2024, the company has been growing rapidly, having secured investment from global venture capital firm Antler Korea and being selected for the Seoul National University Pre-Startup Package.
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