Today marks the 13th anniversary of National Puppy Day. Founded by author Colleen Paige, National Puppy Day focuses attention on adopting puppies and shedding light on puppy mills.
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As a dog-friendly office, Crunchbase holds these furry companions close to home. To celebrate National Puppy Day, the Crunchbase office is receiving a special visit from Bella Vita Rescue, who is based in Oakland, Calif. All dogs visiting the Crunchbase office are available for adoption.
But Crunchbase isn’t the only organization paying attention to our fluffy friends. Venture capitalists are also paying close attention to the pet industry. In 2017, $69.51 billion was spent on pets in the U.S., according to the American Pet Products Association, and as a whole, the global pet market is estimated at $109 billion.
As Crunchbase News reported in 2018, “[money spent on pets is] up 69 percent from one decade prior…So it’s no surprise that the increased spend on pets is reflected in increased funding for pet-related startups.
In the spirit of the day, we’ve collected a list of the top 7 pet startups you need to know — whether it be to spoil your dog with a dog computer (yes, you heard right), find a dog-walker, or rescue a new puppy. We curated this list from a Crunchbase Pro search on pet startups with a Crunchbase Rank above 50,000.
7 Pet Startups to Keep an Eye On
- Joyful Pets
HQ: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Total funding raised: $250K
Joyful Pet is an all-in-one pet adoption, pet care, and pet parenting community. Founded by Lauren McCarron, an animal welfare advocate and tech entrepreneur, their mission is to help people find pets who are in local animal shelters or rescue facilities.
- Wag
HQ: Los Angeles, California
Total funding raised: $361.5 million
Founded in 2014, Wag is a mobile app to find trusted and certified dog-walkers. With a $300 million investment from SoftBank Vision Fund, Wag is one of the most well-funded pet companies. Wag was founded by brothers Joshua and Jon Viner, as well as Jason Metlzer, who is the founder of Surfdog LA, a dog-walking service in Los Angeles. - Fi
HQ: New York, New York
Total funding raised: $10 million
Have a dog that doubles as Houdini? Fi notifies you when your dog escapes with their dog collar that always tracks your dog. With Fi, you can instantly track your dog’s location no matter where they are in the U.S.
- DogHero
HQ: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Total funding raised: $12.6 million
As one of the leading pet service companies in Latin America, DogHero helps you find dog walkers or trusted places to board your pup. DogHero is currently working to change the way people care for pets in Latin America and has launched in Brazil, Argentina, and is working on expanding to Mexico. - Obe
HQ: San Francisco, California
Total funding raised: $925K
Obe is an IoT pet health & wellness platform whose first product, the patented ProBowl, is designed to keep our pets healthier and happier. The ProBowl is a dog bowl that tracks your pet’s eating and drinking habits.
- NomNomNow
HQ: Oakland, California
Total funding raised: $13 million
NomNomNow creates and delivers fresh, human-grade, personalized meals for dogs and cats. Created by a board-certified veterinary nutritionist, Dr. Justin Shmalberg, NomNomNow’s meals are made with restaurant-quality ingredients and its portions are optimized to provide pets with the ideal balance for their weight, age, activity level, and more. - PupPod
HQ: Seattle, Washington
Total funding raised: $792K
PupPod is building a computer for dogs to promote mental stimulation and physical activity. The PupPod puzzle game automatically keeps challenging your dog as it learns.
