Why did we invest in Wagr?
Article authored by Nilay Doshi, Associate-Investments, IvyCap Ventures
“We would do anything for our pets”, that’s a common phrase you’ll hear from a pet parent who builds an emotional and long-lasting bond with their pets and treat them as a family member.
Indian Pet Care is one of the fastest-growing markets which is doubling every 4 years at a CAGR of 23%. As per one of the reports, total pet sales are projected to reach $5Bn by 2030. COVID-19 also led to a surge in the pet ownership with Dog and Cat adoption rates going up by 50% and 40% respectively during the lockdown
Our new investment, Wagr is catering to the petcare segment, which is quite unorganized, by building a Smart Petcare Platform which is a one-stop destination for everything that a pet parent needs.
Started as a product company, wherein they built a device to track pet’s location and fitness activity, the company now has an all-inclusive solution, wherein they provide access to certified veterinarians for teleconsultation, a marketplace of products/services, and a club wherein pet parents can connect and discuss petcare. The company’s vision is to provide the most trusted platform for pet parents.
The company’s founders, Siddharth and Advaith, are passionate about this segment and come with a complementary skill set to digitize the petcare space which for a long time was offline oriented. The idea was conceived when Advaith’s dog ran away from home, never to be found again. When he looked out for location tracker devices, he found most of them are imported from China with very less features and were too bulky for pets. Advaith then teamed up with his friend Siddharth, who is also a pet lover, to build this company and solve the problem for millions of pet parents out there.
The company has more than 50,000+ users on the platform in a short time and has completed 3500+ consultations to date. The company has already tied up with various brands in the food, health/wellness, and accessories categories as part of its marketplace segment.
We believe that the company has identified a great combination of platform + hardware solutions thereby having a huge potential to become a go-to platform for everything a pet parent needs. And who better team than passionate founders who are pet lovers themselves and who have seen this problem very closely. Wagr has the potential to scale to a new level in one of the fastest-growing markets in India
About IvyCap Ventures
IvyCap Ventures — an early stage Venture Capital firm that nurtures entrepreneurs and their ideas into sustainable businesses, leveraging our Global Alumni Ecosystem.
