Veterinary Startup Launches with High Alpha Innovation

A collaborative venture studio involving Indianapolis-based High Alpha Innovation has launched its first startup. Transfur, a referral management platform for the veterinary industry, is headquartered in Minneapolis and received funding from Varsity Venture Studio, which also involves the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

Transfur is a Software-as-a-Service platform designed to make it easier to for veterinarians to request, send, manage and review medical records. High Alpha Innovation says the platform is the first of its kind.

The company was co-founded by sisters Annie and Ali Pankowski, who are currently Doctor of Veterinary Medicine students at UW-Madison and the University of California-Davis, respectively. The Pankowskis will continue as advisors to Transfur and the company will be led by co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Scott Brown.

“With Transfur, we have a phenomenal opportunity to shift the paradigm with veterinary specialists who want to spend less non-billable time requesting and reviewing medical records in preparation for evaluation visits,” Brown said in a news release. “I’m thrilled to hit the ground running with Annie, Ali and the team at High Alpha Innovation. We plan to fundamentally improve the way clinical data is reviewed at a time and in a market that we believe is perfect for innovation.”

Transfur’s board of directors will be comprised of Brown, High Alpha Innovation CEO Elliott Parker and independent board member Sven Wehrwein.

High Alpha Innovation is a spinoff of Indy-based venture studio High Alpha designed to help corporations and universities use the venture studio model to create and invest in new startups.