Two Singapore Polytechnic students build AI tool Broby to help vets save time

SINGAPORE – What started as a personal struggle with their own dogs has become an entrepreneurial success story for two 18-year-olds at Singapore Polytechnic (SP). 

Second-year business students Hyuga Karamochi and Caleb Yap Keane Yang have made impressive headway with their start-up, Broby, an artificial intelligence (AI) transcribing tool that automates medical documentation for veterinarians. 

The idea of starting a business related to pets germinated when Hyuga’s four-year-old toy poodle Abby had to wear the Elizabethan collar after minor surgery in 2024.

Seeing how the dog struggled with the cone, Hyuga and Caleb came up with the idea of a bitter-tasting bandage to prevent pets from licking wounds. 

The two classmates set up Broby, a portmanteau of their pets’ names – Caleb’s cavapoo Brownie and Hyuga’s Abby. 

But feedback for their initial business idea from veterinarians was not promising. They were told that such bandages are not new and most dogs would find a way to chew off even the bitterest patch.

“That idea didn’t work and, at first, it felt like a setback,” Caleb said. The Singaporean added that the more time they spent shadowing vets, the more they noticed that vets spend huge amounts of time writing consultation notes. 

Pivoting to AI

In April, the students decided to pivot their passion project to a smarter solution: to develop an AI tool that auto-generates notes and valuable data for research and reports.

As neither of them had any technical knowledge, they taught themselves coding basics and leaned on friends from SP’s School of Computing, as well as external mentors.

Through the SP Overseas Entrepreneurship Immersion Programme and WaveSparks’ Young Founders Summit, Hyuga and Caleb were introduced to Dr Vanessa Lin from My Family Vet in Singapore and Dr Daniel Wilfred of Vet Partners in Johor Bahru. Both agreed to help them pilot and refine their idea.

With the two vets providing valuable real-life data, the students built Broby – a Chrome extension and web application that uses speech-to-text technology to transcribe and summarise veterinary consultations. The software will generate complete consultation notes in real time, addressing the critical pain point of the massive hours spent on paperwork.

Unlike generic AI solutions, Broby is custom-trained on veterinary terminology and the unique characteristics of veterinary workflows.

“We realised that vets sometimes speak three or four languages and dialects in the same consultation. So, our AI needed to be able to handle Singlish, Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and Japanese – not just standard English or American accents,” said Hyuga, a Singapore PR.

Standing out from the competition

While AI-powered note-taking for doctors and vets is not new, Broby sets itself apart by prioritising multilingual accuracy, especially for South-east Asian clinics. 

“A lot of US-based tools don’t work well with our accents or when people switch languages mid-sentence. But our tool was trained using real consultation recordings from Singapore and Malaysia, so it’s far more accurate,” said Caleb. 

They collaborated with both Dr Lin and Dr Daniel during the product’s development, training and testing phases, which spanned about three to four months of constant iterations and data gathering.

The vets’ valuable inputs allowed the accuracy rate of Broby’s AI system to hit about 92 to 95 per cent, even in multilingual scenarios.

The attention to local needs paid off. Since Broby was incorporated in July, using initial funding from SP, the take-up rate among veterinarians has grown steadily. The software is now used by 21 vets from nine clinics – five from Singapore, four from Malaysia – each subscribing at a rate of $99 a month.

Dr Lin and Dr Daniel have nothing but praise for the students’ enthusiasm, perseverance and professionalism.

“I have been thoroughly impressed throughout our collaboration with their exceptional work put into developing the AI system for daily history taking,” said Dr Lin, who started My Family Vet Clinic in 2012.

“The system is not only technically sound, but it is also genuinely useful and thoughtfully designed for vets like myself.” 

For Dr Daniel, who has nine years of experience working with companion animals, wildlife and exotic pets, collaborating with the Broby team was enlightening.

“It has been both an honour and a pleasure to assist and work alongside two bright young men. I’ve gained new perspectives on how artificial intelligence can be applied in veterinary medicine – in ways I hadn’t considered before,” he said.

“I believe this technology will enhance our efficiency in saving lives and help ease the already heavy workload carried by veterinarians.”

SP Entrepreneurship Centre’s assistant director Jovan Peh added: “Hyuga and Caleb’s journey reflects the strong ecosystem of guidance, funding and opportunities that SP provides to nurture young founders from idea to impact.”

Challenges and future plans

Balancing entrepreneurship with schoolwork was not always easy. 

“We fought a lot at the start,” Hyuga said. “But we learnt to manage our time and stay focused on our goals.”

With revenue climbing and positive feedback from users, Broby is setting its sights further afield. 

Hyuga, who is Japanese, sees a natural market for their solution in Japan. “We’re planning a trip to Tokyo in December to speak with distributors and clinics. Japanese vets face the same challenges we saw here,” he said.

While they are currently seeking investors, both founders insist that money is not the only motivator. “We just want to make life better for vets and their patients – and do work we enjoy,” Caleb said.