July 8, 2022

Otto, Pepette & Cooper Pet Care

🐶 Industry News

–  Recently spoke with Arnuv Tandon, one of the founders of Otto, a Bay Area startup that makes a mobile app and digital ID tag for dogs. Arnuv and his co-founder, Karan Dalal, were members of their high school robotics team when the pandemic struck. Faced with extra time after classes moved online, the pair began channeling their passion for dogs into a project. After raising more than $10,000 on Kickstarter, they coded an app that stores a pet’s vaccine record and connects to a pet tag using a QR code.

They began partnering with animal shelters to distribute their app and now count several thousand pet parents as customers. The startup recently raised a $1.6 million pre-Seed round and expanded their team to five. The founders graduated high school this past Spring, but the success of the business has caused them to delay college for the time being. Arnuv said the company is working on a new version of the app that will have more features geared toward new pet parents. They are looking to connect with brands looking for new ways to get in front of pet owners and can be reached via email or on LinkedIn.

– Kisaco Research announced that the 5th Annual PetCare Innovation Summit USA will be held in Boston the first week of December. They are looking for pet startups for their Best in Show pitch competition.  

💰 Financing & Deals

• Cooper Pet Care, an Amsterdam-based veterinary telehealth startup, has closed a $915,000 round. Founded last year by a couple of entrepreneurs during a startup bootcamp, the company plans to use the funds to expand the service in the Benelux region.

• Pepette, a DTC pet food startup that delivers meals throughout France, has raised a $5.8 million Series A round. Founded in 2019, the company has 2,000 monthly subscribers. France is estimated to have 14 cats and 8 million dogs.

• Luxembourg-based JAB Holding continued its shopping spree by acquiring AGILA, a German pet insurer and Veterfina, a Dutch pet insurer. This is the fourth pet insurance company JAB has acquired this year.

🤷 Somewhat Relevant

• Sniffspot, an app that allows homeowners to rent out their yards to dog owners, is logging 10,000 bookings a month.

• Dan Goldfarb, the founder of pet CBD company Canna-Pet, sold his Frank Lloyd Wright home in LA for $6.16 million.

💼️ Pet Industry Jobs

• Senior Data Analyst – Trupanion (Seattle & various locations)

• Regional Sales Manager – IDEXX (France)

• Associate Director, Integrated Marketing – Chewy (Boston)