Cat-sitting startup Meowtel clawed its strategy to profitability regardless of hassle elevating from dog-focused VCs

Canine are the preferred pet within the U.S.: 65.1 million households have one, in keeping with the American Pet Merchandise Affiliation. However whereas cats usually are not far off, with 46.5 million households with one, numerous innovation within the pet class has centered completely on canines. And even when the service serves each species, the main target 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 so much 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 companies existed, however she didn’t suppose they did sufficient for feline buddies.

“There must be a service for cat individuals particularly; they’ve very completely different wants,” Petcavich advised TechCrunch. “Rover had been round for a number of years, and Wag was choosing up steam, however they have been so canine centered. I stated, ‘Fuck it, I’m going to be the loopy cat one that does this.’”

She took $100,000 of her personal cash, discovered a developer staff and launched Meowtel in 2015. The startup is a market for cat homeowners to search out cat sitters and solely hires individuals who have direct expertise with issues like giving cats drugs (cats are particularly liable to continual sickness as they grow old) 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 staff to confirm that they’re an actual particular person, one thing different sitting websites don’t do. Petcavich joked it’s simpler to get into Harvard than it’s to turn 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 staff has put within the work, constructed up its model and gotten its consumer expertise the place it wished it to be.

Meowtel is worthwhile and its gross reserving quantity income is rising 50% 12 months over 12 months. 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 centered on greater cities, together with New York and Los Angeles. It’s trying to broaden its paw print to smaller cities, too.

Meowtel has made it so far elevating just below $1 million in enterprise capital. Of that whole, $500,000 got here from angels, together with Jason Calacanis’ Launch and Elizabeth Yin, a basic associate 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 powerful as a result of the enterprise capital neighborhood is extra dog-centric and many individuals didn’t get why cats wanted their very own sitting service. Petcavich stated that even nonetheless, she wished to pursue enterprise funding for Meowtel due to its market enterprise mannequin, which she thought made it match for VCs. Additionally, because of the capital-heavy nature of market companies, she thought VC cash made essentially the most sense.

She’s proper that there appears to be considerably extra venture-backed corporations centered on canines than there are on cats. There are a number of startups centered on areas reminiscent of higher pet food, equipment and even ones centered 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 sensible canine collar, has raised greater than $40 million in enterprise capital.

As for the cats, there are noticeably fewer. Recent pet meals firm Smalls is without doubt one of the few venture-backed corporations within the class. It raised $19 million final 12 months, and its founder Matthew Michaelson advised TechCrunch’s Christine Corridor that he additionally thinks innovation within the pet class has largely been centered on canines.

However does the market really want, or have the flexibility to help, a sitting service only for cats? Petcavich says sure, and her firm’s success thus far 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 completely 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 actually opened up this blue ocean.”