The pet market is booming everywhere around the world with a steady increase in pet-related sales value. According to recent studies, the specific reason why the industry keeps expanding in the Europe and across the world is twofold: The households owning at least one pet animal have increased and consumers have been spending more and more per pet.
The estimated number of pet dogs is about 87 million and the number of cats is araound 102 million. This all adds up to almost 200 million animals, without even counting other small mammals, nor caged neither birds nor fish. This has certainly boosted the pet food products industry, however a massive growth in value has been registered also in non-food related products and even pet-dedicated accessories and/or supplies also witnessed such a trend.
The startup world has not been immune to the lure of this variegated industry and set out to innovate especially in two product categories: pet food and pet services. Let’s have a look at some successful examples of startups tackling the pet market across Europe:
Butternut Box is not your average pet food company. The British startup founded in 2016 is about as luxurious as a pet brand can get. The company, in fact, cooks and delivers boxes of fresh dog food to homes across the UK. All the food is cooked-to-order in weekly batches and tailored to suit the needs of each individual dog. The people at Butternut Box have made quality and freshness their distinctive features: ‘Putting the food back into dog food’ is their motto. Over the past two years, the successful startup has secured the impressive figure of £6.2 million in three rounds of funding.
Mascoteros is a Barcelona-based pet startup operating in Spain and Portugal. Its leading ecommerce marketplace of pet products comprises a network of 300 pet shops across Spain, 520 brands and 35.000 items. Founded in 206, the company’s main strengths are its big product catalogue, competitive prices and its delivery service. After two rounds of funding Mascoteros has managed to raise a total of €1.8 million.
PawSquad was launched in August 2015 in London with the mission to improve the way pet healthcare is delivered. Over the past few years, the startup has built a successful marketplace that connects pet owners to pet care providers (vets, trainers, breeders, nutritionists) over multiple touch points. PawSquad features services such as ‘Video Visits’, a 24/7 face-to-face video consultation service with certified vets. Within two rounds of funding the startups has been able to assemble a total of about €1.6 million.
Snau: Another pet startup from Spain, Snau, is the go-to website for a dog’s owner everyday needs. Founded in 2016, the platform is a vetted marketplace of dog services such as sitting, walking, training and grooming. The young company also offers a space to keep your pets while you are on vacation. In just less than two years, the Madrid-based startup has secured €305K in seed funding.
Tailwise was launched in 2017, in the UK. The London-based startup originated from the ambition of its two founders, Dan Baird and Sam Worthy, to ease the process of looking for and purchasing a dog. Today, Tailwise is a platform that matches dog buyers with trusted and safe dog breeders. The company also provides its users with guidance and assistance when looking for a dog, vetting breeders, ensuring puppies are healthy and giving future owners a ‘No Puppy Farm’ guarantee. As of today, the British pet startup has secured about €225K in funding.
Felcana: Founded in 2016 in London, Felcana is a tech startup devoted to pet healthcare. Felcana monitors your cat’s and dog’s health and wellbeing, using connected devices and tracking exercise, temperature, eating and drinking habits, and sleeping patterns. This data is collected and analysed in Felcana’s cloud computing platform, which also produces reports and insights made available for the veterinarian experts. Felcana’s first product “Felcana Health Monitoring Kit” was launched earlier this year. The startup received about €200,000 in grants from Innovate UK in addition to Angel investments.
Oupet is a startup company launched in 2015 and based in Finland that offers pet sitting services. Oupet helps pet owners find trusted and qualified pet sitters in Finland whenever needed. Among its services: boarding, house sitting, drop-in visit, daycare, dog walking and grooming for dogs, cats and other pets. The kaverivahti platform also offers to its users the possibility to become a pet sitter on Oupet free of charge. However, pet sitters need to go through a verification process before being approved. Pet owners can easily compare pet sitters, chat with them and make a booking either on the website or the mobile apps. So far, Oupet has only raised about €50K in funding.
Wooldog: According to Inc. magazine, Wooldog is one of the ‘Coolest Canine Startups of 2017’. The company was founded in 2016 and is based in Poznan, Poland. Wooldog mostly produces handcrafted sweaters and unconventional pet-centered items such as wool blankets and cowls. Its e-shop and Instagram feed feature dogs wrapped in wool pieces which are single handedly manufactured by the Polish brand’s artisans.
Dinbeat: This Barcelona-based pet startup has developed a wearable device, called DinbeatPRO, which monitors the pet’s health in veterinary facilities. The device allows vets to continuously monitor their vitals giving pets the best, real time, medical assistance. This way, Dinbeat is saving time and money for veterinarians, helping them to grow their business., and improving the quality of pet’s life. Apart from the technology, Dinbeat’s website includes a marketplace of gadgets dedicated to pet lovers. Dinbeat was founded in 2016
Petbnb: Founded in 2015 and based in the Netherlands, Petbnb connects dog lovers with dog owners looking for a trusted sitter for their pooch. The platform is inspired by AirbnB and allows its users to find dog day care, house sitters, dog walkers and many other services in a selected area of the Netherlands. The platform is present in more than 700 towns around the country and counts over 1,000 subscribed sitters. The company also promises to dog professionals who subscribe to the platform to help them grow their businesses with 24/7 support, tools, and useful tips.
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Nice post, Mariaclaudia – it’s lovely to see some really great companies in your list. Though, I’m surprised not to see DogBuddy (Europe’s leading dog boarding, day care and walking startup) included.
With more than a million dog lovers in our community, and over 30,000 vetted approved sitters offering their 5-star rated services across Europe, we’re growing fast and have raised over €9M to date.
There’s a little more about us here: https://www.dogbuddy.com/about