A Swedish company that has built a preventative pet health and insurance ecosystem has announced its UK launch.

Trusted by more than 300,000 pet owners across Europe, Lassie says it is redefining pet insurance by combining AI-powered claims handling, which resolves over 60% of claims in around six minutes, with personalised, life-stage-specific care advice to help prevent illness and injury before they happen.

At its core, Lassie is a pet wellbeing app as much as an insurer, and it’s available to any pet owner to use, whether or not they hold a Lassie insurance policy.

Lassie’s founding in 2020 was inspired by CEO Hedda Båverud Olsson, who grew up watching her veterinary mother grow frustrated at treating pets after preventable conditions had progressed into serious, costly illnesses.

In February Lassie raised $75 million in a Series C funding round led by Balderton Capital, Felix Capital, Inventure, Passion Capital and Stena Sessan, bringing total funding to $115m.

The company has now launched in the UK, one of Europe’s least-penetrated major pet insurance markets, where more than 20 million dogs and cats in the UK have no insurance at all.

Even among those insured, understanding of cover is poor, with pet insurance having the highest complaint-upheld rate of any general insurance category, Lassie claims.