As humans gathered last week around dinner tables to give thanks, pets too may have much to give thanks for. Especially pets belonging to Millennials. It seems that what’s good for the parent is also good for the pet
First, Tech products seem to be migrating down from the owners to their pets: from pet wearables, to websites that find nearby pet sitters, to telemedicine apps.
Then on the food side, pet owners are increasing putting their pets on the same shirt as themselves. So watch out for Keto kitties and intermittently fasting Fido’s.
Finally, pet parents are increasingly open to alternative therapies for their pets – from aromatherapy to reflexology to hemp-based relief.
WThe animal startup space is starting to heat up. On the heels of successful exits (Whistle acquired by Mars) and ginormous fundings (Wag and Rover leading the pack), a spate of young startups is using technology to transform traditional animal care.
The Digital Animal Summit’s Startup Club is teaming with new ideas and entrepreneurs. Here are some of our favorites:
- Pawprint, headed by Emily Dong, puts pet medical records on your smartphone;
- Petronics, led by Dave Cohen, makes MOUSR, a robot toy to keep your cats happy and agile;
- Swinetech and CEO Matthew Rooda, are on a mission to eliminate piglet crushing;
- Accessible Diagnostic, co-founded by John Warner, offers Vet-Tab, painless glucose test system for diabetic dogs;
- Cowlar, led by Umer Adnan, supplied dairy farmers fit-bits for cows
- Obe, started by Hilary Jensen, makes smart food bowls that prevent overfeeding
Fostering these mission-driven innovators are Ag-tech and Animal-tech investors like Anterra Capital (based out of Boston and Netherlands) and Leap Venture Studios (based out of Oregon), who are leading investments in this space ahead of Silicon Valley firms.
We are excited to meet these trail-blazing entrepreneurs and farsighted investors at Digital Animal Summit 2019. We hope you can join us.
Author:
Eric Shank
Start Me Up – Shark Tank like startup showdown at Digital Animal Summit 2019
As humans gathered last week around dinner tables to give thanks, pets too may have much to give thanks for. Especially pets belonging to Millennials. It seems that what’s good for the parent is also good for the pet First, Tech
Year Round Up
We would like to come back to another very active year for the pet care and animal health category. This highlights the continued transformation of our industry. For context, this comes after some major moves that have happened in 2017: Boehringer-Ingelheim
Of Dogs and Unicorns: VC’s Go Gaga Over Pets
With over $300 million each in venture investments and near billion-dollar (“unicorn”) valuations, Wag and Rover are the poster children of tech investors’ new found love for the pet care industry. This is good news. This is also bad news. Access
