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Pets aren’t just pets anymore—and the numbers back this up.
The pet food market in the U.S. is expected to reach $58.42 billion in revenue in 2024. Experts predict that the space will grow at an even faster rate than packaged food for humans over the next several years.
As a whole, the pet market is expected to rise from $320 billion in 2023 to almost $500 billion by 2030. This growth can be attributed to the increasing global pet population and a shift towards premium food and pet services.
As the pet industry continues to grow, many startups in pet healthcare, customized pet food, pet insurance, and related areas seek to catch consumers’ eyes with their services and products. We’ve rounded up 20 of these promising companies.
1. Supertails
- 5-year search growth: 9,800%
- Search growth status: Exploding
- Year founded: 2021
- Location: Bangalore, India
- Funding: $28.4M (Series B)
- What they do: Supertails is a pet health startup that provides veterinary telehealthcare and home delivery of pet care products and food. Founded in 2021, the company has already raised upwards of $2.6M from a range of investors, including Bollywood stars Deepika Padukone, Saama Capital, and Tej Kapoor. The company’s leadership team includes doctors and entrepreneurs with solid experience in the pet care space. In February 2024, the startup raised an additional $15 million in Series B funding.
2. Smalls Cat Food
- 5-year search growth: 9,700%
- Search growth status: Exploding
- Year founded: 2017
- Location: New York, NY
- Funding: $28M (Series B)
- What they do: Smalls Cat Food is a DTC cat food startup. Specifically, the company sells human-grade cat food made with fresh and freeze-dried food. They also provide an onboarding quiz that helps the company offer nutrition plans tailored for each user’s cat. According to Smalls, “78% of their customers report shinier and softer fur, whereas 64% report a more energetic cat.” The startup has raised $28M in funding.
3. PetLibro
- 5-year search growth: 99x+
- Search growth status: Exploding
- Year founded: 2019
- Location: Santa Clara, CA
- Funding: $24M (Series B)
- What they do: PetLibro is a pet tech startup that creates innovative solutions for pet parents to enhance their pets’ quality of life. Their products include automatic feeders, water dispensers, and more, all designed to make pet care easier and more convenient.
4. FluentPet
- 5-year search growth: 1,000%
- Search growth status: Peaked
- Year founded: 2020
- Location: San Diego, California
- Funding: $742.5K (Seed)
- What they do: FluentPet is a DTC pet accessory startup. They sell three core SKUs, but they are mainly known for their dog talking buttons (searches for “fluentpet buttons” have increased 99X+ in the last 24 months). These buttons have helped the startup go viral on social media. The hashtag #fluentpet has over 550 million views on TikTok. The startup recently won the 2022 TITAN Business Award for its pet communication system. Since launching, its set of dog-talking buttons has generated over $7 million in revenue.
5. Felmo
- 5-year search growth: 1,720%
- Search growth status: Exploding
- Year founded: 2019
- Location: Berlin, Germany
- Funding: $17.7M (Series B)
- What they do: Felmo is a German-based veterinary services startup that streamlines and digitalizes veterinary care for dogs and cats. This mobile app connects pet owners searching for vet care services with veterinary clinics online. The platform provides online consultations, appointment booking, and instant access to treatment results.
6. Pettable
- 5-year search growth: 99x+
- Search growth status: Exploding
- Year founded: 2020
- Location: Wilmington, Delaware
- Funding: Undisclosed
- What they do: Pettable provides Emotional Support Animal (ESA) letter services to pet owners. The company connects individuals with licensed professionals who can evaluate and issue ESA letters for housing and travel purposes. Pettable has issued ESA letters to more than 200,000 customers.
7. The Farmer’s Dog
- 5-year search growth: 567%
- Search growth status: Exploding
- Year founded: 2014
- Location: New York City, New York
- Funding: $103.1M (Series C)
- What they do: The Farmer’s Dog is an alternative pet food startup that ships dog owners nutritious, human-grade dog food. Founders Jonathan Regex and Brett Podolsky dreamt up the company after finding that homemade dog food alleviated Podolsky’s dog’s digestive issues. In 2020, the company completed a $54M Series C funding round. The startup recently announced it expects to reach $800 million in sales.
8. Wagmo
- 5-year search growth: 16%
- Search growth status: Regular
- Year founded: 2018
- Location: New York, New York
- Funding: $24.5M (Series Unknown)
- What they do: Wagmo is a pet care startup that provides digital pet wellness services and insurance for monthly fees. The company, which is comprised of 58% female team members, can help pet owners cover emergency needs, chronic issues, and other ailments and injuries. Their wellness plans include common medication, routine visits and shots, and other needs. In August 2023, Wagmo brought in $8.9 million in funding to continue expanding.
9. Tractive
- 5-year search growth: 194%
- Search growth status: Exploding
- Year founded: 2012
- Location: Pasching, Austria
- Funding: $37.7M (Series A)
- What they do: Tractive is a pet GPS company that helps pet parents keep close tabs on their cats or dogs through their smartphones. The company’s technology was featured in the Amazon Prime show The Pack, which premiered on November 20, 2021. The Austrian company was founded by Michael Tschernuth and Michael Lettner, former colleagues at Austrian mobile phone company Emporia Telecom, and Michael Hurnaus, who previously worked at Microsoft and Amazon.
10. Vetster
- 5-year search growth: 7,600%
- Search growth status: Regular
- Year founded: 2019
- Location: Toronto, Canada
- Funding: $37.4M (Series B)
- What they do: Vetster is an online veterinary service that connects pet owners with licensed veterinarians for virtual consultations. The platform gives pet owners access to 24/7 video chat appointments and their pets’ medical records history. In 2022, Vetster announced an exclusive partnership with PetMeds to provide all pet telehealth and telemedicine services to the existing 2 million PetMeds customers.
11. PetHub
- 5-year search growth: -21%
- Search growth status: Peaked
- Year founded: 2010
- Location: Wenatchee, Washington
- Funding: $4.1M (Series A)
- What they do: PetHub is a pet care startup seeking to tackle the problem of lost pets. They offer pet ID tags that can be scanned to show the information needed to reconnect an animal with its owner. The company was founded by Tom Arnold, previously a Microsoft employee, in an effort to improve the low U.S. Return to Owner rate.
12. Petkit
- 5-year search growth: 733%
- Search growth status: Exploding
- Year founded: 2013
- Location: Shanghai, China
- Funding: $95.6M (Series D)
- What they do: Petkit develops smart pet products, including self-cleaning litter boxes (PURA MAX and PURA X), smart feeders (Fresh Element Infinity), water fountains, and more. Currently, Petkit has over 400 product patents and serves customers in 30+ countries. Most recently, the startup launched the PUROBOT ULTRA, an AI-powered cat litter box that can analyze and offer insights into a cat’s health status.
13. Bella and Duke
- 5-year search growth: 90%
- Search growth status: Regular
- Year founded: 2017
- Location: Blairgowrie, United Kingdom
- Funding: $5.9M (Series Unknown)
- What they do: Bella and Duke offers raw dog and cat food for pet owners concerned about the health of their pets and dissatisfied with standard options. Founders Mark Scott and Tony Ottley launched the company after the passing of their dogs. Through research, they concluded that cancer that took their pets might have stemmed from the quality of the conventional food they were eating. In late May 2021, Bella and Duke announced an investment of nearly $10M, which it plans to use to increase its reach and impact. Today, the startup delivers over 3 million meals per month.
14. PetDesk
- 5-year search growth: 100%
- Search growth status: Regular
- Year founded: 2011
- Location: San Diego, California
- Funding: $15.6M (Series B)
- What they do: PetDesk is a communication and productivity platform that helps veterinary practices provide care and information to their clients while saving time and getting more done. Through their app, vets are able to achieve an average 4.72% growth in revenue annually. In 2019, PetDesk received a $12M investment from PeakSpan Capital with plans to advance toward their goal of giving back 10 million years of life to pets everywhere in 10 years.
15. Bugalugs
- 5-year search growth: 1,150%
- Search growth status: Exploding
- Year founded: 2020
- Location: Workington, United Kingdom
- Funding: Undisclosed
- What they do: Bugalugs is a pet care brand specializing in pet grooming and health care products. Specifically, the company’s product categories include shampoos and conditioners, balms, dental care, supplements, and other related health care products for cats and dogs.
16. Nom Nom
- 5-year search growth: 32%
- Search growth status: Exploding
- Year founded: 2015
- Location: Nashville, Tennessee
- Funding: $13M (Series B)
- What they do: Nom Nom (NomNomNow, Inc.) provides customers with healthy, veterinarian-formulated dog food shipped anywhere in the continental United States. Benefits they attribute to their food include increased energy, fresher breath, reduced shedding, and healthy weight. In addition to their pet food business, the company is also compiling a database of pet microbiome information. In May 2018, the company announced a funding round amounting to $13M, which was the largest such investment in the industry at the time. The startup was acquired by Mars a pet food manufacturer, in 2022 for $1 billion.
17. Pawp
- 5-year search growth: 69%
- Search growth status: Peaked
- Year founded: 2019
- Location: New York, New York
- Funding: $27.5M (Series Unknown)
- What they do: Pawp is a telehealth startup that delivers veterinary care and emergency coverage for a monthly fee. The company aims to help pet owners provide quality care to their pets while avoiding pricey veterinary bills. Launched in 2019, Pawp brought in $13M in mid-2021 from several prestigious investors, including the founders of Allbirds, Harry’s, and Zocdoc.
18. Butternut Box
- 5-year search growth: 233%
- Search growth status: Exploding
- Year founded: 2016
- Location: London, United Kingdom
- Funding: $466.8M (Private Equity)
- What they do: Butternut Box offers custom, grain-free, human-grade dog food with free delivery in the U.K. Founders Kevin Glynn and Dave Nolan launched the company in 2016, starting it as a side hustle and transitioning it to a full-time business. The London-based startup raised an estimated £20 million in 2020 in a round led by L Catterton, which has also invested in Bliss, Birkenstock, Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza & Wings, and other companies.
19. Maxbone
- 5-year search growth: 42%
- Search growth status: Regular
- Year founded: 2016
- Location: Los Angeles, CA
- Funding: $4M (Series A)
- What they do: Maxbone is a fashion product manufacturer for the pet industry. Their products combine fashion, culture, and modern art that appeal to pet owners. From toys to apparel to leashes, Maxbone continues to innovate and reimagine the pet industry with its unique and upscale merchandise.
20. Embark
- 5-year search growth: 87%
- Search growth status: Regular
- Year founded: 2015
- Location: Boston, Massachusetts
- Funding: $94.3M (Series B)
- What they do: Embark is a dog DNA testing company that seeks to gain a greater understanding of the canine animal in order to better care for them. The biotechnology startup provides pet parents with insights into the health and potential disease risks of their animals. The company was co-founded in 2015 by Blue Apron founder Matt Salzberg, researchers Adam and Ryan Boyko, and Spencer Wells, who previously worked for the National Geographic Society.
Conclusion
More than ever, pet owners see their pets as family, striving to provide them with a higher quality of life