Canine are the preferred pet within the U.S.: 65.1 million households have one, in response to the American Pet Merchandise Affiliation. However whereas cats are usually not far off, with 46.5 million households with one, lots of innovation within the pet class has targeted completely on canines. And even when the service serves each species, the main focus is extra prominently on canines.
Sonya Petcavich, the founding father of cat-sitting app Meowtel, thinks that cats, and cat individuals, deserve extra.
When Petcavich’s cat Lily died in 2015, she realized she won’t have been the very best cat mother. Petcavich traveled loads for her job in gross sales for Philip Morris and wasn’t residence as a lot as she thought her senior cat may need wanted. She knew that pet-sitting providers existed, however she didn’t suppose they did sufficient for feline associates.
“There must be a service for cat individuals particularly; they’ve very totally different wants,” Petcavich instructed TechCrunch. “Rover had been round for just a few years, and Wag was selecting up steam, however they had been so canine targeted. I stated, ‘Fuck it, I’m going to be the loopy cat one who does this.’”
She took $100,000 of her personal cash, discovered a developer crew and launched Meowtel in 2015. The startup is a market for cat house owners to seek out cat sitters and solely hires individuals who have direct expertise with issues like giving cats medication (cats are particularly liable to power sickness as they become older) and taking good care of cats with particular wants. Potential sitters undergo a rigorous six-step course of till they’re allowed to hitch the app. This features a 30-minute name with the Meowtel crew to confirm that they’re an actual individual, one thing different sitting websites don’t do. Petcavich joked it’s simpler to get into Harvard than it’s to change into a Meowtel sitter.
The corporate has been working largely in stealth since its founding. Petcavich stated the corporate solely got here out of stealth now as a result of for the final 9 years, the crew has put within the work, constructed up its model and gotten its consumer expertise the place it needed it to be.
Meowtel is worthwhile and its gross reserving quantity income is rising 50% yr over yr. The corporate has greater than 2,200 sitters on the platform, a few of whom have been with Meowtel for all 9 years. The corporate has accomplished greater than 95,000 sitting requests and has largely targeted on larger cities, together with New York and Los Angeles. It’s trying to broaden its paw print to smaller cities, too.
Meowtel has made it thus far elevating slightly below $1 million in enterprise capital. Of that whole, $500,000 got here from angels, together with Jason Calacanis’ Launch and Elizabeth Yin, a normal companion at Hustle Fund. Further capital got here from accelerator applications, together with Tech Wildcatters and Sputnik ATX. The corporate’s most up-to-date funding was in 2020.
Petcavich stated that elevating from VCs was robust as a result of the enterprise capital group is extra dog-centric and many individuals didn’t get why cats wanted their very own sitting service. Petcavich stated that even nonetheless, she needed to pursue enterprise funding for Meowtel due to its market enterprise mannequin, which she thought made it a great match for VCs. Additionally, as a result of capital-heavy nature of market companies, she thought VC cash made probably the most sense.
She’s proper that there appears to be considerably extra venture-backed corporations targeted on canines than there are on cats. There are a number of startups targeted on areas reminiscent of higher pet food, equipment and even ones targeted on well being. Butternut Field, a U.Ok.-based pet food firm, has raised greater than $466 million in VC funding. ImpriMed, a canine oncology startup, raised $23 million in November, and Fi, a wise canine collar, has raised greater than $40 million in enterprise capital.
As for the cats, there are noticeably fewer. Contemporary pet meals firm Smalls is likely one of the few venture-backed corporations within the class. It raised $19 million final yr, and its founder Matthew Michaelson instructed TechCrunch’s Christine Corridor that he additionally thinks innovation within the pet class has largely been targeted on canines.
However does the market really want, or have the power to assist, a sitting service only for cats? Petcavich says sure, and her firm’s success up to now and development trajectory appear to again that up.
“Within the period of 2020, there’s a model that caters to each particular kind of viewers that exists,” Petcavich stated. “These species are totally different, however nobody is making that distinction. I feel it’s the psychology of the cat proprietor, the medical wants of the cat itself, that basically opened up this blue ocean.”
