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About
Emma Harris' first company came out of a $10,000 vet bill for her Labrador: Healthy Pets, Canada's first veterinary telemedicine app, which raised $500,000 from Arlene Dickinson's District Ventures and was the subject of her 2018 TechTO talk on going from idea to venture capital in a year. Novel is the second attempt at the same problem from the other side of the counter — an actual clinic. Its argument is structural: "a proprietary team-based approach to medicine that allows us to offer an exceptional patient experience at a more accessible price point," with veterinarians, registered technicians and assistants dividing work that a conventional practice loads onto the vet, and a membership model in place of the per-visit bill. Harris is co-founder and chief executive and is finishing a PhD at the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph on access to care and the growing overlap of veterinary medicine and big business. Her co-founder Dr. Brendon Laing is a second-generation veterinarian and a former president of the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association. The clinic's team runs to two more veterinarians, five registered veterinary technicians, six veterinary assistants, client-care staff and a small head office including engineering, operations and marketing.
Backers
No funding round has been announced for Novel. Harris' earlier company Healthy Pets raised $500,000 from District Ventures.
Quick answers
What is Novel?
A veterinary clinic in Burlington, Ontario, run on a team-based model and sold as a membership, with the explicit aim of making routine pet care cheaper than a conventional practice.
Who founded Novel?
Emma Harris, co-founder and chief executive, who earlier founded the veterinary telemedicine app Healthy Pets, and Dr. Brendon Laing, co-founder and chief veterinary officer, a second-generation vet and former president of the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association.
How is the team-based model different?
Registered technicians and assistants take on work that a conventional clinic routes through the veterinarian, which is how Novel argues it can hold prices down without cutting the standard of care.