Pet Care Startup Wiggles Raises $1 Mn, Will Expand Its Footprint

Pune-based pet healthcare and wellness startup, Wiggles, on Thursday, has raised $1 Mn funding in its first funding round from a long list of angel investors, investing in their own personal capacity.

Among the angel investors, prominent ones included Nachikhet Deshpande, COO of L&T Infotech, Aparna Badkundri, director, Dell Computers, Dr Sachin Phadke, managing director of Vetbiochem India, Abhay Amrute, senior partner, IIFL Wealth Management Ltd, Satish Billakota, vice president, Europe Cognizant, and Rishi Tanduulwadkar, founder of Solo Stem Cell Clinic, among others.

Founded in 2018 by father-daughter duo of Anushka Iyer and Rajh V Iyer along with Venky Mahadevan, Wiggles provides pet-focused products across India via partnerships with ecommerce companies.

Besides selling its products online, Wiggles also provides vet on call and grooming services across Pune and Mumbai.

With its first round of funds, Wiggles will strengthen its presence, operations, distribution and expand its product range and introduce more products. Additionally, the company is also planning to increase its footprint and launch its services in Hyderabad and Udaipur.

Founder and CEO of Wiggles, Anushka Iyer said that the company has witnessed 40% month on month growth since June 2019 along with a 4x return on costs. “Having started off our operations in a single city – Pune, we have now expanded our presence to Mumbai. We are focused on creating a brand with PAN India presence,” she added.

Moreover, in a press statement, the company said that it aims to introduce transparency associated with costs, medication, nutrition and wellness options across the pet industry.

Wiggles claims that the platform’s flagship offering is the Wiggles Box which contains anti-parasitic medicines, nutritional products and essential vitamins for a pet, which is backed by personalised alerts through the company’s app ensuring that the pets never misses their doses again.

Pet Focussed Startups Budding In India

Pet care technology has been gaining ground across the world and one dog walking startups, Wag, backed by SoftBank, has even managed to enter the unicorn league.

In India, the technology trend is picking up force with tech players operating in the pet industry. While, pet food is the major segment in India, capturing more than two-thirds of the market revenues, pet accessories, grooming and healthcare are also growing rapidly into urban markets.

Besides gaining market popularity, startups operating in this space have also been able to attract investors and bag a substantial amount of funding.

Last month, a Delhi-based pet care and products retailer, Heads Up For Tails, completed a $10 Mn Pre-Series A funding round. The investment was led by a group of family offices, HNI’s and existing promoters.

Another pet care startup CoZo, in August 2019, was in talks with marquee investors — Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners for raising funds for its pet wellness service.