Small Door Raises $55M to Keep Pets Out of the Doghouse at the Vet

Watch more: Small Door Raises $55 Million to Keep Pets Out of the Doghouse at the Vet

The U.S. veterinary care market is vast by any measure, with roughly 32,000 practices serving more than 94 million pet owners. Most practices are small, independent “mom and pop” shops, while the rest are consolidated under large corporate owners or private equity roll-ups.

For the typical pet parent, the fragmented market creates a rushed experience in which a veterinarian might spend only about 10 minutes with an owner before moving on to the next patient.

Florent Peyre, CEO and co-founder of Small Door Veterinary, experienced this problem firsthand as a pet owner, where the disjointed experiences gave rise to frustration.

Vets came in and rushed him through various appointments with his dog. “You don’t know how much it’s going to cost you. And so you are a little bit stressed out. You try to calculate in your head what it is,” he told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster.

That frustration helped spark the idea for Small Door, a membership-based veterinary care provider designed to reinvent the experience from the ground up, a de novo approach that seeks to build a new model of care from the ground up.

Small Door’s membership-based veterinary platform blends in-person care with always-on digital access. That access includes 24/7 telemedicine staffed by Small Door’s own veterinary team, with average response times of about a minute, even at 4 a.m. Customers interact with the brand through multiple touchpoints: routine or urgent in-clinic visits, virtual consultations via the mobile app, digital records and reminders and online chats for advice.

The clean-slate strategy allows Small Door to execute on what Peyre listed as four key pillars:

Membership model. “Our membership is not super expensive. It’s $149 a year, and it includes your first visits and 24/7 telemedicine that is staffed by our own teams,” Peyre said. Members also average one to two more visits annually compared to non-members.

Medical excellence. “We’re always leading with what good care looks like,” Peyre said. Small Door caps the number of daily appointments at 16 so doctors can spend more time with each patient. The company also seeks accreditation from the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), which only about 5% of U.S. practices achieve.

Technology. “What we’ve seen historically when we looked at the space was a lot of fax and paper and phone calls and not a lot of efficiencies,” Peyre said. “So we always attack this with having our own mobile app, bringing efficiency and ease of use for our members, but also for our teams.”

Thoughtful design. “It seems crazy to think that it would be something new in the space, but I’m sure you’ve had the experience of going into a space that smells like dog food. This is not what a model looks and feels like,” Peyre told Webster. Transparency is also central: “When you visit us, your doctor is here for the entirety of that appointment. And then, you know, we’ll tell you what we think we should do on your dog or your cat, but we’ll project it on the screen … you can have that open conversation,” he added.

Changing the Psychology of Care

The membership model also changes the psychology of care. “Ultimately the way I look at this is touchpoints with the brand,” Peyre said. “We’re averaging between 10 and 12 a year. So once a month, you’re in touch with us one way or another. And that’s how we’re really building that relationship.”

That alignment of incentives is also key to profitability. “We’re not trying to be a concierge medicine provider who charge more. We are always very cautious. In some cases, we’re actually cheaper,” Peyre said. “The play is not to charge more. The play is to build a long-term relationship with you.” Small Door offers a broad scope of care, including surgeries and dentistry. “We’re not just wellness—we’re general practice plus,” Peyre said.

Growth has been largely organic, with more than two-thirds of new members coming from referrals and visibility. “It feels very different when you walk by a Small Door,” Peyre said, where the locations are based in New York City, Boston and Washington, DC.

$55 Million in Fresh Capital

Now, Small Door is preparing for its next phase of growth, having just secured $55 million in capital from a group of investors led by Valspring Capital. “The $55 million is really is to grow our units,” Peyre said. “We’re not going to go too fast. We’d rather go deep in our existing markets before looking at new cities.” The company aims to reach profitability by next year.

Looking ahead, Peyre sees a broad roadmap. That includes expanding clinical services, investing in technology, and refining the membership experience. But the foundation remains the same: “We are looking for the type of pet parents who are looking for a true partner in healthcare,” he told Webster.

PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster is one of the world’s leading experts in payments innovation and the digital economy, advising multinational companies and sitting on boards of emerging AI, healthtech, and real-time payments firms. She founded PYMNTS.com in 2009, a top media platform covering innovation in payments, commerce, and the digital economy. Webster is also the author of the NEXT newsletter and a co-founder of Market Platform Dynamics, specializing in driving and monetizing innovation across industries.

Florent Peyre is the CEO and co-founder of Small Door Veterinary and is also a pet owner.