New Paradigm Investment makes pre-Series A investment in Petpharm

New Paradigm Investment announced on the 3rd that it had made a pre-Series A investment in Petpharm Co., Ltd., a pet-care startup that operates the animal pharmacy platform “Petpharm.”

Petpharm, the recipient of the investment, is a startup specializing in pet medicines founded in December 2019. It has already partnered with more than 1,200 animal pharmacies nationwide and operates the Petpharm app. The company launched Korea’s first animal pharmacy platform app, which has surpassed 10,000 downloads on Google Play.

Petpharm supplies animal medicines to pharmacies and helps them sell the products effectively by providing management support and assigning regional managers. It also helps general pharmacies open animal pharmacy sections and provides after-sales services, including returns and recalls of animal medicines.

“Petpharm launched Korea’s first animal pharmacy platform app and moved quickly to secure more than 1,200 animal pharmacies nationwide,” said Park Je-hyun, CEO of New Paradigm Investment. “The animal medicine market was worth KRW 1.237 trillion last year. We decided to invest because Petpharm’s integrated platform for supplying animal medicines to pharmacies has significant potential to expand and grow.”

Petpharm, which started out with monthly sales of KRW 600,000 in its early days, has grown rapidly, recording monthly sales of about KRW 140 million in June this year. It expects sales of approximately KRW 1.4 billion by year-end. The company has registered a patent with the Korean Intellectual Property Office for an “Animal Pharmacy Brokerage System and Service Method” and is accelerating development and expansion of services that use its app to make animal pharmacies more accessible to consumers.

“An average of 80 animal pharmacies register each month as new suppliers of animal medicines through Petpharm, helping us expand our service,” said Petpharm CEO Yoon Sung-han. “With this investment, we’ll step up development of additional features, including a map service that lets consumers search for medicines they need and find pharmacies that carry them, as well as one-on-one chat consultations between pharmacies and consumers. Our goal is to reach about 3,000 animal pharmacies by the end of next year.” Yoon added, “We plan to offer pharmacy-based consultations through the Petpharm app and an animal medicine brokerage system (Patent No. 10-2258771). We also plan to launch our own products—including probiotics for pets, joint supplements, and pet first-aid kits—and supply them to animal pharmacies.”