By Krysten Brenlla
For pet owners, knowing their pet’s age is crucial to understanding their lifestyle needs. That’s why local entrepreneur, Andria Beal, a Florida International University graduate in epigenetics, launched EpiPaws, a first-of-its-kind pet age test kit that can help determine a pet’s estimated birthday (and their Zodiac sign!) with an oral cheek swap and epigenetic research.
Last year, Refresh Miami sat down with Beal to discuss how EpiPaws can help pets and their owners understand important health information based on the pet’s age and life stage.
Since then, Beal has collaborated with over a thousand pets and their owners nationwide, worked with several accelerators across Florida, and partnered with notable organizations, such as Hill’s Nutrition, to advance her research and help our furry companions live their best lives.
“With our pet age test, we have resulted more than 1,200 samples now, which is exciting,” Beal said. “We have over 1,000 customers, including pet owners, vets, and corporate companies, and we’ve received great feedback – pet owners are getting peace of mind.”
The EpiPaws team has also introduced a new resource for pet owners – an online platform that allows users to easily access their pet’s results digitally, complete with a downloadable PDF of the findings.
Additionally, Beal and her team at EpiPaws have also collaborated with veterinarians across South Florida to collect samples for their health biomarker test. Although the health biomarker test hasn’t launched yet, it will focus on identifying markers that enable Beal and her team to assess the health of individual organs.
“What’s useful about this test is that we can analyze the individual scores of organs to see what may be accelerating a pet’s age and work with the pet’s veterinarian to solve the problem,” Beal said. “Our initial plan is to work direct-to-consumer by giving our research participants the score and present the data to them. We’re also working to offer this test at certain veterinary clinics where we can provide solutions for the vets to present to their clients.”
Throughout the year, Beal and her team at EpiPaws have participated in several local accelerators, such as Nova Southeastern University Levan Center’s Accelerate, a 12-week program for startups, and Florida Atlantic University’s Tech Runway, where she worked with mentors that helped her set goals curated to her company.
“We tackled everything from social media posting and sales, to organizing your financials and partnerships,” Beal said of the yearlong Tech Runway program. “I even ended up keeping one of my mentors as a fractional chief financial officer for EpiPaws.”
As Beal and her team continue working on EpiPaws, one of their biggest goals is to continue increasing their year-over-year revenue and sample collection – specifically looking at how they can collaborate with new organizations and partners to increase their samples.
“Last year around this time, I had a goal to double our revenue, and now, we’re on track to make 3 – 5 times our revenue based on partnerships,” Beal said. “I wasn’t even sure we’d get partnerships, because during this time last year we didn’t have any. Now, we have a few that help us collect samples or help us bring in revenue – so that’s been a huge accomplishment.”
For the future, Beal and her team are gearing up to begin the sequencing from their data collection, and are looking forward to continuing their work to help pets and their owners in South Florida.
When asked for her experience on starting a company in South Florida, the North Carolina native shared that South Florida is “a pretty great place to build a startup.”
“There’s so many resources and programs in South Florida, like accelerators and incubators, that are very important for early stage founders,” Beal said. “You get connected to entrepreneurs who are going through similar things as you are, and the programs also have resources like legal and financial help – I can’t imagine if you’re a startup somewhere with no resources. It would be extremely hard.”
READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:
- Paws up if you like this news: Ani.VC launches $35M early-stage venture fund for pet startups
- Peanut Butter Park: Where dog parents can find their pack
- Wondering how old is your pet? EpiPaws can help and more pet-health innovation is on the way
- Love pets but not the vet bills? So does Fursure
- P3T, a Miami pet-health startup, raises $10M, acquires pharmacies
- UM students launch AIdMD, reimagining electronic health records with built-in AI - February 27, 2026
- Six women founders pitched at eMerge Americas’ SHINE! competition. And the winner is … - December 19, 2025
- UM grad’s safety app helps students stay protected and connected. Now with seed funding, he’s expanding access - November 12, 2025