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Tracking Pet Startups
& the Pet Tech Industry

Pet Valu to close all 358 US stores

Undermining the notion that the pet industry is pandemic-proof, Pet Valu, a large specialty retailer of pet food and supplies, announced it is shutting down all of its US stores.

Pet Valu, the third largest pet retailer in North America, is owned by private equity firm Roark Capital Group. However, the Canadian arm of the company is a separate, profitable business and will continue to operate its 600 plus stores. The US stores were licensing the Pet Valu brand from the Canadian operation.

While sales have been up at Chewy, Petco and PetSmart, Pet Valu's management stated that the company had "been significantly impacted by the protracted COVID-19 related restrictions."

While Pet Valu didn't offer any details, the company's small store sizes may have made socially distant shopping difficult. Add in a weak e-commerce platform and things get tough.

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Purina creating pet food made from insects

Joining the ranks of startups focused on creating sustainable pet food, Purina is launching a line of dog and cat food made from black soldier fly larvae.

Insects are an extremely sustainable source of protein, much more so than animal meat. Insects emit fewer greenhouse gases than cattle or pigs and require significantly less land and water to raise.

Other startups that use alternative protein to create pet food include:

Ynsect - mealworms
Yora & Super Pet Foods - fly larvae
Bond Pet Foods - lab-created protein
Wild Earth - Koji, a type of fungus

Smart move by Purina as there seems to be a growing trend of people seeking a more eco-friendly way to feed their pets.

However, the two new recipes Purina will be rolling out both include chicken mixed with the fly larvae. Seems like many of the pet parents they are targeting may prefer a livestock-free meal option.

3 new pet apps

Three new apps targeting pet owners have hit the app store recently:

Dogpro - dog training featuring pet social influencer Natalie Dobkins
Paway - uses real-time, crowd sourced data for dog walking. Like Waze for dog walks.
MyHooman - matches shelter pets with people looking to adopt a pet. Think Tinder for rescue animals. Currently for shelters in New Zealand, expanding globally next year.

So there is an industry for delivering pets

Interesting article in the New York Times about specialists who crisscross the US by air and ground delivering pets to their new homes.

They are called flight nannies and some are so busy they are turning away business.

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