Healthcare services · Veterinary care
Dr. Treat
A membership veterinary practice built around two clinics in the San Francisco Bay Area, pitched by its founders as “One Medical for pets” and backed by a seed round reported at $10.5 million to $11 million.
A dog named Coco
Rakesh Tondon had already lived two careers, first as a financial consultant at JP Morgan Chase, then as founder of the fashion accessory brand LeTote, which filed for bankruptcy during the pandemic. In the middle of that, he and his wife Hetal Shah, herself a restaurateur and entrepreneur, brought home an Australian labradoodle named Coco.
“She came into our life when our life was under some chaos and stress, and she completely healed us,” Tondon told India Currents in 2024. What followed was less pleasant: the quality of veterinary care available to Coco, in his telling, was not what he expected.
“My wife came up with the idea, where she said how about we create a platform to make it better and easier to provide veterinary care?” Tondon said. That question, from Shah, is the origin story he gives for Dr. Treat.
The problem, and the pivot that found it
Tondon co-founded the company with Shah and Charlie Bowman, who had been CTO at LeTote. Their first plan was not to open a clinic at all. It was to build software for existing veterinary practices.
“I want to say it was very organized, but it wasn’t,” Tondon said of the early period. The three spoke with veterinarians, practice managers and attended industry conferences, offering their software free for a five year trial to any practice willing to try it. Practice owners, doing fine on the metrics that mattered to them, had no reason to change. Veterinarians working under those owners were often unhappy but had no leverage.
“We realized that nobody wants to change,” Tondon said. “So we said if we solve the problem for the vets and the pet parents, there’s a good business here.”
That reframing produced Dr. Treat: a clinic the founders would run themselves, built around a membership rather than pay-per-visit pricing, with a genetic breed test and a proactive, wellness-first approach in place of vaccinate-and-wait veterinary medicine.
From Union Street to Burlingame
Dr. Treat opened its flagship clinic on Union Street in San Francisco's Marina district in the summer of 2022. Axios San Francisco covered the opening that August, noting the clinic was entering a market that already included Modern Animal, a rival members-only veterinary chain that had opened a NoPA location the same week. Dr. Treat's $250 annual membership included genetic testing, unlimited health and wellness exams and 24/7 veterinary support, more expensive than Modern Animal's $129 but bundling a service Modern Animal did not offer.
Tondon told Axios the company anticipated serving between 3,500 and 4,500 members a year at that single location, and planned to open more clinics “in the very near future.”
That promise arrived in January 2024, when a second location opened at 220 Primrose Road in Burlingame. By the time India Currents visited the Union Street clinic in early 2024, the reported membership price had dropped to a flat $149 a year, covering both in-person and video consultations. Whether that is a genuine price cut or a change in what the fee covers is not stated in either source.
Wellness over sickness
The clinical philosophy Tondon describes leans hard on prevention. “We think the right way is to focus on health, focus on prevention, move the conversation from sickness to wellness, and say, how do we become the company that can give you the tools, technology, infrastructure support, to keep your animal healthy?” he told India Currents.
Dental hygiene is the example he returns to. Working with lead veterinarian Dr. Felicity Moffat, the company built a dental examination protocol for its veterinarians, on the theory that fixing dental problems early heads off much larger bills later. “If you fix dental issues, if you have a moderately active dog eating good quality food, your cost of veterinary care drops by as much as 80%,” Tondon said. That figure is his own claim, not an outcome measured by any published study.
Hospitality is the other pillar, drawn from Tondon and Shah's restaurant backgrounds: pheromone diffusers for anxious cats, dog videos in exam rooms, a floor scale so pets are not lifted onto a platform.
Ambitions past two clinics
Tondon has said the Bay Area alone could support five more Dr. Treat locations, with eventual clinics in states like Washington, Ohio, Texas and Minnesota. Two clinics, Union Street and Primrose Road, are the ones independently confirmed.
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Y Combinator batch | Listed as Summer 2022 (S22), status “Active,” team size 21 as of the company's most recent YC page update, primary partner Jared Friedman. | YC data |
| Clinic locations | Union Street, San Francisco, opened summer 2022 (Axios, India Currents). Second location at 220 Primrose Rd, Burlingame, opened late January 2024 (company release, reprinted by dvm360). | Independent |
| Membership price | $250 per year reported by Axios in August 2022. $149 per year reported by India Currents in March 2024. Neither source explains the change. | Differs across sources |
| Seed funding amount | Company release (Dec 2023, reprinted by dvm360) states $10.5M raised “in 2022.” An independent funding tracker lists $11M raised in a single round that closed December 2023. | Differs across sources |
| First clinic opening date | The company's own December 2023 release states in its “About” section that the first San Francisco location opened “in August 2020,” contradicting the same release's reference to a Union Street clinic anniversary, and contradicting Axios and India Currents, both of which place the opening in 2022. | Company release is internally inconsistent |
| SEC Form D | “DR TREAT A SERIES OF VUVP FUND LLC” filed a Form D on Sep 11, 2024, reporting $73,250 sold from 8 investors. No Form D appears under Dr. Treat, Inc.'s own name in SEC EDGAR. | Public record |
| FDA, trials, NIH, NSF | None found tied to Dr. Treat. Records under the name “Treat” in NSF and PubMed databases belong to unrelated researchers and institutions. | Not applicable |
| Current operating status | Both the company website and its Yelp listing were active as of 2026, with the Yelp page showing reviews dated as recent as July 2026. The YC company page lists status as “Active.” | Independent |
Read plainly: Dr. Treat operates two real clinics with independent press confirming both openings, and it is still running in 2026. The money side is murkier. The company's own account of when and how much it raised does not match an independent funding tracker, and the only SEC filing tied to the Dr. Treat name is an investment vehicle, not a filing from the company itself.
What to watch
- Whether Dr. Treat opens any of the five additional Bay Area locations Tondon has described, or any clinic outside California.
- A Form D filed directly by Dr. Treat, Inc. that would reconcile the $10.5M and $11M figures now in circulation.
- Named results from the dental hygiene protocol or any other clinical claim the company has made about cost or outcomes.
- Whether membership pricing settles at $149, $250, or some other figure as the company matures.
In their words
“Dr. Treat is a tech enabled modern veterinary care company offering virtual and in-clinic services to pet parents. We are building the largest pet health company powered by technology and driven by data to offer highly personalized & preventative care for every pet.”
Company description, Y Combinator company page · Company-stated
“She came into our life when our life was under some chaos and stress, and she completely healed us.”
Rakesh Tondon, co-founder and CEO, India Currents, 2024 · Interview
“My wife came up with the idea, where she said how about we create a platform to make it better and easier to provide veterinary care?”
Rakesh Tondon, India Currents, 2024 · Interview
“We realized that nobody wants to change,”
Rakesh Tondon, India Currents, 2024 · Interview
“If you fix dental issues, if you have a moderately active dog eating good quality food, your cost of veterinary care drops by as much as 80%.”
Rakesh Tondon, India Currents, 2024 · Interview
“We are building one of the most technologically advanced veterinary care companies and creating aesthetically designed spaces for anxiety-free experiences,”
Rakesh Tondon, co-founder and CEO, company release, Dec 15, 2023 · Company release
“But then when your model is to build a network of 100 clinics, some of them are going to be owned, some of them are going to be franchised, how are we going to be able to control them?”
Rakesh Tondon, India Currents, 2024 · Interview
Related companies
Sources
- Public recordForm D, DR TREAT A SERIES OF VUVP FUND LLC
- Public recordEDGAR company search results for “dr treat,” Form D filings
- IndependentMembers-only pet care market heats up (Dr. Treat opens vet clinic in the Marina)
- InterviewDr. Treat, A Vet Clinic Unlike Any Other
- IndependentDr. Treat: “One Medical for pets.”
- IndependentLaunch YC: Dr. Treat, tech-enabled veterinary care for highly personalized in-clinic and virtual care
- IndependentTop Pet Tech Startups by Fundraising (2026)
- IndependentDr. Treat leadership team listing
- CompanySF-Based Veterinary Startup Dr. Treat Readies Second California Location
- CompanyVeterinary Startup Dr. Treat Readies Second California Location
- CompanyDr. Treat website, homepage and membership page
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
