Los Angeles-based startup Petnet was able to secure $1.12 for its seed round, Gigaom reported. The financing was participated by Grishin Robotics, Kima Ventures, SparkLabs, Global Ventures, Launch Capital and angel investors. The company aims to link the food dish of your cat or dog to the internet. The company intends to use the proceeds for the production of its intelligent connected pet feeder.
Called the Petnet Smartfeeder, the feeder features an assembly of food storage and dispenser that can be run from a pet owner's smartphone. There's more to the app than allowing individuals to serve dinner to their pet with just a single touch of a button. The report said the startup aims to come up with a system of dietary management that can produce a tailor-made feeding schedule and portions by taking the age, breed, weight and personal eating habits of the pet into account.
The feeder has already gained the interest of pet owners as advance orders for the feeder have now reached 10,000. Petnet plans to be able to distribute the feeders in the second quarter. Although a dedicated iOS app for the iPhone and iPad has been developed, Petnet said the service can also be run using any mobile or PC web browser. Petnet intends to sell the intelligent feeder for a price of $249 but pre-orders are priced lower at $199, the report said.
Petnet is one of the companies that make up the inaugural class of Boston-based accelerator Bolt which focuses its investments in hardware. It's the first company from Bolt to obtain financing. However, it's not the first pet-focused tech firm to capture the attention of potential backers. Other companies like San Francisco's Whistle and DogVacay have also piqued the curiosity and support of investors, Gigaom reported. San Francisco's Whistle makes a dog activity tracker while DogVacay connects dog owners with potential dog boarders.
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