Delhi-based luxury brand for pet products, Heads Up For Tails (HUFT), has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding led by individual investors from USA, Singapore and India.
Heads Up For Tails was started in 2008 by Rashi Sanon Narang, an alumna of London School of Economics. In her quest to find a present for her Lab – Sara’s first birthday, Rashi was disappointed with what she found in the pet stores. This is where she decided to start her own line of top quality products for pets where pet parents can explore wide variety of options to buy useful, but fun products!
HUFT is a exclusive luxury brand for ‘pawsh’ and fun doggie couture. Its products range from comfy and customised dog beds, chic collars and leashes, fashionable dog apparel, to accessories for pets and pet lovers!
With the raised funds, the company will be launching 4-6 new points of sale this year including one in New Delhi next month. The company is also focussing on international expansion and has recently launched the brand in the USA.
Rana Atheya, founder of DogSpot, speaking on whether the company plans to expand outside of India says, “India is the fastest growing pet industry globally and we are going to focus in India. We have double growth drivers with people spending more on pets and pet population is also increasing. The only challenge in the developed countries like UK, Europe and USA is that the CAGR of the pet industry is very low. For eg: The UK pet industry is growing at about 3.5 % CAGR with 9 Mn pet dogs and 9 Mn pet cats. The biggest challenge in the UK is that the pet population is stagnant since last 8 years as compared to Indian pet industry which is growing at more than 30% CAGR.”
Currently, HUFT is a 15 member team with over 1000 products being listed on the platform. The average ticket size is INR 1200, and the company claims to have 50,000 active customers.
HUFT also has a monthly gift box called as Wag Box for pets that is packed by the team and is full of surprises. It is a subscription-based service where a customer has to share details of the dog’s personality, size, shape, breed and other relevant details. Based on dog’s profile, HUFT team handpick products for the pooch.
Currently, it offer 3 options – a one month Subscription at INR 1999, three months at INR 4999, and six months at Rs. 9999. It has shipped over 1000 wag boxes till date.
Speaking about the entry of ecommerce biggies in the pet products section, Rashi says, “There is plenty of competition and it’s growing everyday. But we are focussing on creating and developing our own brand to reach out to a niche segment of pet parents who are design and quality conscious. We work extremely hard on both those factors, and do believe that it helps to differentiate us in a very crowded market.”
Recently, DogSpot, has raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Ratan Tata, along with a few new and existing investors – Ronnie Screwvala, India Quotient and K Ganesh.
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