Dogs are the most popular pet in the US: 65.1 million households own one, according to the American Pet Products Association. But while cats are not far behind, with 46.5 million households with one, much of the innovation in the pet category has focused specifically on dogs. And although the service serves both species, the focus is more on dogs.
Sonya Petcavich, the founder of the Meowtel cat sitting app, thinks that cats, and cat people, deserve more.
When Petcavich’s cat Lily died in 2015, she realized she wasn’t the best cat mom. Petcavich often travels for his job in sales for Philip Morris and is not at home as much as his senior cat would like. She knew pet-sitting services existed, but she didn’t think they were enough for her feline friend.
“There needs to be a service for cat people specifically; they have very different needs,” Petcavich told TechCrunch. “Rover had been around for a few years, and Wag was picking up steam, but they were dog-focused. I said, ‘Fuck, I’m going to be a crazy cat doing this.'”
He took $100,000 of his own money, found a team of developers and launched Meowtel in 2015. The startup is a marketplace for cat owners to find cat sitters and only hires people with direct experience in medicine such as giving cats medicine (cats are especially prone to chronic diseases as they get older) and care for cats with special needs. Prospective sitters go through a rigorous six-step process until they are allowed to join the application. This includes a 30-minute phone call with the Meowtel team to verify that they are real people, which other sit-down sites don’t do. Petcavich joked that it was easier to get into Harvard than to be Meowtel’s sitter.
The company has operated largely in stealth since its inception. Petcavich says the company is only coming out of stealth now because over the past nine years, the team has been working, building the brand and getting the user experience where they want it.
Meowtel’s profit and gross order volume revenue is growing 50% year over year. The company has more than 2,200 sitters on its platform, some of whom have been with Meowtel for nine years. The company has completed more than 95,000 seating requests and focuses on major cities, including New York and Los Angeles. It also wants to expand its paw print to smaller towns.
Meowtel has done at this point raising just under $1 million in venture capital. Of that amount, $500,000 came from angels, including Jason Calacanis’ Launch and Elizabeth Yin, general partners at Hustle Fund. Additional capital came from accelerator programs, including Tech Wildcatters and Sputnik ATX. The most recent financial report on the Company’s revenue is in 2020.
Petcavich said raising from VCs is difficult because the venture capital community is more focused on dogs and many people don’t understand why cats need sitting services. Petcavich said he still wants to pursue venture funding for Meowtel because of its marketplace business model, which he considers suitable for VCs. Also, because of the capital intensive market business, they think VC money is best.
He is right that some venture-backed companies focus more on dogs than on cats. There are several startups that focus on areas such as better dog food, accessories and even those that focus on health. Butternut Box, a UK-based dog food company, has raised over $466 million in VC funding. ImpriMed, a canine oncology startup, raised $23 million in November, and Fi, a smart dog collar, has raised more than $40 million in venture capital.
As for cats, there is noticeably less. Fresh pet food company Smalls is one venture-backed company in the category. It raised $19 million last year, and founder Matthew Michaelson told TechCrunch’s Christine Hall who also thinks innovation in the pet category has largely focused on dogs.
But does the market really need, or have the ability to support, a cat-only sitting service? Petcavich says yes, and the company’s success to date and growth trajectory seem to bear that out.
“In the era of 2020, there are brands that cater to every type of specific audience that exists,” Petcavich said. “These species are different, but there is no difference. I think the psychology of the cat owner, the medical needs of the cat itself, that really open this blue sea.
