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Formerly | Rover.com |
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Company type | Public |
Founded | June 13, 2011 [1] |
Founders | Greg Gottesman Aaron Easterly Philip Kimmey |
Headquarters | , U.S. |
Area served | United States |
Key people | Aaron Easterly, CEO Brent Turner, COO Jennifer Capasso, VP, Product Tracy Knox, CFO |
Services |
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Number of employees | 250 (2021) |
Subsidiaries |
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Website | rover |
Rover Group, Inc. is an American company which operates an online marketplace for people to buy and sell pet care services including pet sitting, dog boarding, and dog walking. [2] Rover.com was founded in 2011 in Seattle, Washington and is formally incorporated under the name "A Place for Rover, Inc." [3] The company serves as a broker and takes roughly 20% of each transaction booked through its site. [4]
Founder Greg Gottesman had a hard time finding good pet sitting for his yellow Labrador named Ruby. In June 2011 he went to the Startup Weekend in Seattle, Washington and pitched the idea for what would become Rover.com. At that event Gottesman worked with interested supporters, including co-founder Philip Kimmey, and they later decided to move ahead with starting the company. [1] [3] [5] [6] [7]
Rover.com first began operations in Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. By 2012 it had expanded to all 50 states. [3]
On March 29, 2017, Rover.com acquired DogVacay in an all-stock deal. At that time, it was reported that total bookings on the combined sites amounted to $150 million in 2016, of which they kept about 20% in commission fees. [8]
On May 2, 2018, Rover.com announced expansion into Europe. [9] [10]
Rover.com has a panel of pet experts, including vets Dr. Gary Richter, Dr.Rebecca Greenstein, dog expert and trainer Nicole Ellis, and cat expert Mikel Delgado that assist in giving pet advice and guidance.
Rover.com has been sued multiple times for deaths of pets resulting from negligent care provided by sitters. Attention from the press and online groups have focused attention on Rover.com's accountability, particularly as a platform for independent business operators. An article written September 14, 2020, on ABC15 Arizona discusses a woman whose dogs went missing for 3 months during a Rover visit. [11] The sitter who had been watching the dogs was still accepting new clients and easily available on Rover.com while the pet owner was searching for her dogs. Rover.com only referred to themselves as an advertising company for independent business operators. Rover.com's current Q&A Community page has a question posted by a woman whose dog in the care of Rover.com sitter escaped the yard where the dog was left unattended, and was later hit by a car and killed. [12] The Rover.com user asked for some sort of reimbursement and the sitter to be removed. Rover.com responded by asking the user to reach out to Rover.com's team to review the case. An article from 11ALIVE.com discusses a woman whose dog also escaped during a Rover.com boarding experience and was hit and killed by car. [13] She has since started a petition asking for Rover.com to review their criteria for sitters and the safety of the pets. The petition, started after her dog died June 4, 2021, is currently above 15,175 signatures.
Rover.com's first round of investment funding was secured in April 2012, led by Madrona Venture Group. [1] Additional capital was secured in February 2013, from The Foundry Group. [1] In July 2013, Petco announced an investment in Rover, and a business partnership for cross-promotion with Petco's stores and website. [14]
In March 2014, it was announced that Rover.com had raised an additional $12 million in funding led by Menlo Ventures, with Madrona Venture Group, The Foundry Group, and Petco. [6] One year later, in March 2015, it was announced that Rover.com raised a $25 million funding round led by Technology Crossover Ventures. [15]
Rover.com received $40 million in investments in October 2016 and another $65 million in July 2017, led by Spark Capital. [16]
In May 2018, Rover.com raised another $155 million funding. [17]
Rover.com became a publicly traded company via a special-purpose acquisition company in August 2021 and was listed on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker: ROVR. [18]
In November 2023, Blackstone Inc. announced that it would acquire Rover for $2.3 billion. [19]
In 2011, Rover.com began creating a marketplace for dog sitting and boarding services. Over the next four years it expanded its business to include dog walking, doggy daycare, and drop-in visits. Every sitter on the platform is an independent contractor and is not an employee of Rover.com. [5] In 2017 Rover.com began its Quick Match dog walking service, enabling owners to instantly book a dog walker. The service is no longer available. [20]
Rover.com takes a percentage of each booking made on its site.
PetSmart Inc. is a privately held American chain of pet superstores, which sell pet products, services, and small pets. It is the leading North American pet company, and its direct competitor is Petco. Its indirect competitors are Amazon, Walmart, and Target. As of 2020, PetSmart has more than 1,650 stores in the United States and Canada. Its stores sell pet food, pet supplies, pet accessories, and small pets. Stores also provide services including grooming, dog daycare, dog and cat boarding, veterinary care via in-store third-party clinics, and dog training. They also offer dog and cat adoption via in-store adoption centers facilitated by the non-profit PetSmart Charities.
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Julep Beauty, Inc. New York based cosmetics company founded in 2007 by Jane Park. The company sells its products online and in its own branded beauty parlors
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Madrona Venture Group is an American venture capital firm, founded in 1995 and based in Seattle, Washington. Madrona specializes in seed, startup, Series A and early stage investments.
Carousell is a Singaporean smartphone and web-based consumer to consumer and business to consumer marketplace for buying and selling new and secondhand goods. Headquartered in Singapore, it also operates in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Carousell is available on both iOS and Android devices.
Science Inc. is a Los Angeles–based startup studio that invests and offers expertise in corporations, in an attempt to bring them to profitability. In 2011, Michael Jones founded the organization and is the current chief executive officer. Jones spent time serving with the company's Chief Executive Officers and investors on strategy, growth, and business development.
Whistle Labs Inc. is a subsidiary of Mars Petcare headquartered in San Francisco, California. It produces and markets the Whistle GPS Pet Tracker, a device worn on a pet's collar that monitors its activity and location. In addition to pet owners, the devices have been used by veterinary researchers.
PetCloud is an Australian company selling pet care services based in Brisbane. PetCloud, screens potential pet sitters for pet owners. PetCloud was named a finalist in the Lord Mayor's Business Awards for Digital Strategy. In 2017, founder Deb Morrison was selected as 2017 Finalist for Young Entrepreneur in Brisbane.
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