DogSpot, an online shopping website for pet supplies, accessories and products, has today announced that it has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in its seed funding round from Ratan Tata, along with the participation of Ronnie Screwvala, Ashok Mittal, Rishi Parti, Dheeraj Jain and Abhijeet Pai.
With the new funds coming to the company, it will now be able to expand its range of offerings and thus will offer a wide range of products. It will also use money to expand its team and upgrade its technology.
Commenting about the funding, Ronnie Screwvala said,
We invested early in DogSpot.in as we believe the pet market in India will explode in the next five years as India further urbanises. DogSpot. in is as much a destination to know more about pets as it is about the e-commerce of pets.
Founded in 2007 as a community website. it forayed into eCommerce in 2011. The company is planning to double its team size to 40 and increase its current gross merchandise value threefold in the next year.
Earlier, in 2013, it had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from India Quotient. Prior to that, it had raised funding in 2011 from Vikas Saxena, Vaibhav Gadodia and Ritesh Chauhan. In 2012, Tanjai Ventures and Kibo Partners had also invested in the company.
DogSpot.in claims to be the one stop platform for all dog & dog related needs. It aspires to solve problems in the dog world, by aggregating and organizing information & products, bridging gaps and hence bringing the online pet lover’s community closer.
The company has also launched its own private label product line for dogs, cats and birds in 2014. This allows the company to set its own margin and does not have to compete with other sites offering its products.
Rana Atheya, co-founder and CEO of DogSpot, said,
The investment by Mr Tata is an endorsement of the long-held belief by us and our investors that the Indian pet care sector is going through a phase of huge growth and transformation.
He further claims that with more than 4 million pet dogs, the Indian pet care market is pegged at over $1.2 billion with an annual growth rate of over 35 percent.
The company’s turnover during the year 2013-14 was Rs. 4 crore and it more than doubled it by March 2015. It is expecting the revenue to triple in the next 12 months.
This investment in the company by Ratan Tata marks his 20th investment in a company, in his personal capacity. He has invested in some of the biggest Indian as well as global startups such as Ola, Xiaomi, Snapdeal, among others.
