By Doreen Hemlock
Fursure, a Miami-based startup that offers a pet insurance marketplace and other financial offerings, on Monday announced a new $3 million round of funding, led by MaC Ventures. The close of the oversubscribed “Seed-plus” round brings its total funding to $6.6 million.
Participants in the latest round also feature new investors Sure Ventures, Scrum VC, Western Tech Investment (WTI), Slope Fund and Winklevoss Capital; previous investors including Streamlined Ventures and Upside Partnership; as well as some angel investors, the company said in a statement.
Founded in 2020, Fursure already has helped more than 60,000 “pet parents” gain access to health insurance for their dogs, cats and other pets. Some 97 percent of pets in the US are not insured, leaving their owners vulnerable in case of a medical emergency or chronic illness. Average costs for an emergency visit to a vet run $800 to $1,500, studiesshow.
“Not enough people have set aside money for their pets’ wellness,” investor Kent Goldman of Upside Partnership says in the statement. “Fursure … helps people do something they want to do but don’t know how to do: ensure the wellness of pets entrusted to their care, while protecting their own financial health.”
Led by a passion for pets
Fursure was started by two friends in tech who are passionate about pets: Catherine Dennig, a former senior product manager at Facebook, and Keji Xu, a former solutions architect at Amazon. The two met as volunteers at a pet shelter in the Silicon Valley area, Dennig says. They launched FurSure in 2020 with a marketplace that makes it easier to find and compare pet insurance policies. In 2021, they were recognized among Forbes’ 30 Under 30, honored for Innovation in Tech.
In April this year, their venture debuted a second offering: a Fursure Pet Rewards Debit Card. Users earn supercharged points on their everyday spending that can be redeemed towards the cost of veterinary bills. The card launched with a waitlist of 16,000 people.
Backers are impressed, especially given the size and growth in the US pet care market. “We see a huge opportunity in Fursure’s pet insurance product, which is innovating in a space that has been underserved for decades,” says Adrian Fenty, general partner and managing partner of MaC Venture Capital, in the statement. “People are hungry for a one-stop-shop for pet care, so by providing both financial services and insurance Fursure will fill that niche.”
“There hasn’t been a financial one-stop-shop platform for pet parents to pay for care across the board. That’s what we’re building,” says Dennig, Fursure’s CEO.
Fursure’s first seed round of $3 million closed in 2021, co-led by Moxxie Ventures and Streamlined Ventures. With new funding, the company aims to further develop offerings and grow. As of June, the fintech had nine employees, all working remote, including some in Canada and Asia.
Dennig and Xu came up with the idea for their venture based on their own difficult experiences with unexpected medical bills for their pets. Dennig was in college when her cat was diagnosed with cancer, and a vet said treatment would cost $12,000. She didn’t have the money. Simba died a week later.
“We want people to be able to give pets the care they need without it being a financial decision,” Dennig told RefreshMiami in June in explaining why the two developed Fursure.
From California to Miami because of taxes, quality of life
The co-founders launched their startup in San Francisco, but CEO Denning moved the headquarters to Miami last year. Dennig says she opted to live and work in South Florida lured by lower taxes and a higher quality of life, including access to the ocean to pursue her love of scuba-diving.
Dennig says she appreciates that Miami’s US east coast time gives her a three-hour head-start on California colleagues: “It gives me amazing mornings to be productive, without being rushed.”
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