Ollie acquires AI pet health screening company

NEW YORK — On Oct. 3, fresh dog food company Ollie announced its acquisition of DIG Labs, a diagnostic company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to provide pet health screenings. In tandem with the acquisition, Ollie also introduced its new Foodback Loop™, a proprietary process using millions of data points to improve product development, recipe formulation and feeding algorithms to advance dog health and wellness. 

Founded by Tara Zedayko and Jessica Chu, DIG Labs aims to bring world-class, image-based machine learning and AI to caregivers in pet care and human health. For pet care, the company’s abilities include stool, weight management, skin and coat, dental care and other health screenings. 

Ollie partnered with the DIG Labs last fall to launched free health screenings, allowing people to submit photos of their dog and providing them with analyses on their pup’s digestion, weight, oral, and skin and coat health. According to Ollie, the screenings were “enormously well-received” by its community, leading the company to introduce the screenings as an integral part of Ollie’s membership service. 

Since introducing health screenings, 89% of Ollie’s members strongly agreed that the screenings were valuable features to their Ollie subscription, and 86% claimed the screenings provided more confidence in their decision to feed their pups Ollie’s formulas. All this prompted the company’s interest in acquiring DIG Labs.

Ollie partnered with DIG Labs to provide its customers with pet health screenings using pet images. 

| Source: Ollie

As part of the acquisition, Zedayko will join the company as chief scientific officer, in which she will lead the Foodback Loop program focusing on science, research, producer development and Ollie’s proprietary portioning and recommendation algorithms. 

“We are thrilled to join Ollie to help carry our shared vision forward, stewarding new applications of our technology to empower people with greater insights about their pets’ health,” Zedayko said. “We look forward to applying these technologies to improve pet health and improve their quality of life, which is so significantly impacted by their diet.”

Leveraging more than 20 million data points, Ollie will receive real-time pet insights and use the data to design and improve its pet food recipes to ensure maximum effectiveness, providing personalized nutrition recommendations and portions for each dog — all part of its Foodback Loop. According to Ollie, this will provide its customers with an improved membership experience, providing guidance on portion control, diet transition screenings, and recipe development and enhancement. Additionally, the company will also introduce new initiatives, like weight loss programs, personalized experiences for puppies, recipe optimization to support stool health, and more.

Initial insights from Foodback Loop have revealed invaluable data for Ollie, enabling it to home in on its biggest opportunities in food formulation. For example, 58% of dogs had healthy stool before eating Ollie, and after a one to two weeks of eating Ollie’s foods 75% of dogs had healthy stool. Additionally, weight screenings have shown that Ollie’s Fresh Plans increased healthy weight scores in dogs by 10% to 12%, according to the company. 

Source: Ollie

“Pet parent demographics are shifting to younger generations, and with the acquisition of DIG Labs, we are meeting their demand for tech-enabled and personalized products to improve the quality of life for their pets and themselves,” said Nick Stafford, chief executive officer of Ollie. “We are the only pet food company creating a direct data-led link between what we are feeding our dogs and their health outcomes through individual pet data on stool, weight, skin and coat, and teeth and gums.”

In acquiring DIG Labs, Ollie aims to continue expanding its business, following its mission of helping pet parents provide individualized care to their four-legged companions. Since its start in 2016, the company has provided health screenings to more than 25,000 dogs, evaluating various health factors. 

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