🐶 Industry News
- Interesting article in the WSJ about Chewy's fight to expand into the $10.8 billion pet medication market. Chewy, and other online pet pharmacies like PetMedExpress, must go through a veterinarian to verify a pet's prescription. However, most vets also sell the meds themselves. In fact, prescriptions make up roughly a quarter of a vet practice's revenue. So Chewy has to walk a fine line, both cooperating and competing with veterinarians.
- Zoetis is having a tough time getting into the veterinary diagnostics business. While its primary focus is making pharmaceuticals for pets and livestock, Zoetis decided to wade into the diagnostic business a couple of years ago and bought four large vet laboratories. These labs are used by vets for bloodwork, urine tests, etc. So far, Zoetis has been struggling to merge the labs and can't seem to compete with Idexx and Antech, the two companies that dominate the industry.
- Zoom Room, a venture-backed indoor dog training gym, has signed 30 new franchise agreements, quadrupling its footprint within the year. By January of 2022, the California-based company expects to have 50 locations across 14 states.
- Tabby, a dating app for cat lovers, will be pitching on Shark Tank on Friday, October 29 (which happens to be National Cat Day.) The startup that created Tabby also has a dating app for dog lovers called Dig.
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📈 Top selling pet tech on Amazon
Below is a list of top selling pet tech on Amazon for the last 30 days. PATPET, a Chinese company that makes dog training and bark collars, takes the top spot. Also, the Embark Dog DNA kit is now outselling the Wisdom Panel DNA kit by more than 2 to 1.
| Product |
Price |
Monthly Sales |
Monthly Revenue |
| PATPET dog training collars |
$34 - $70 |
45,716 |
$1,597,000 |
| PetLibro automatic cat feeders |
$70 - 86 |
18,842 |
$1,357,000 |
| Embark DNA tests |
$99 - $149 |
10,369 |
$1,231,000 |
| PetSafe wireless fence |
$284 |
3,861 |
$1,096,000 |
| Furbo dog camera |
$169 |
3,975 |
$671,000 |
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💰 Financing & deals
- Bond Vet, a New York-based vet clinic with 8 locations, has closed a $170 million investment from private equity giant Warburg Pincus. The startup competes with Small Door Veterinary and Modern Animal in offering a high-end, tech-enabled vet clinic experience, focused on millennial pet owners. While each of these companies currently operates only a handful of clinics, the race is on to see who will become the category leader.
- Alpha Paw, an Austin-based startup that primarily sells pet supplements, landed an $8 million Series A investment. The company has seen sales grow from $750,000 in 2018 to an expected $35 million this year.
- JAB Holding, a Luxembourg-based investment group, is seeking to raise $5 billion to invest in petcare companies. JAB entered the pet industry in 2019, buying several large veterinary businesses, and currently owns about 1,000 vet hospitals across Europe, the US, Canada and Australia. The new funds would be used to invest in insurance and medical equipment for pets.
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🤷♂️ Somewhat Relevant
- Three out of five people say they'd call their pet their soulmate.
- Pets can help fight climate change with an insect-based diet.
- UK pet insurance companies are increasingly covering the cost of therapy for lonely dogs.
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😸 I'm looking for pet industry pros to feature in this newsletter
Do you run a pet startup or invest in the pet industry? I would like to hear your story. Reply to this email and we can set up a time to chat.
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