PupPod Raises $772K Seed Funding, Announces Strategic Relationship with The Company of Animals

Funding will accelerate award-winning pet technology company building smart dog toys & new user experiences for pet parents.

SEATTLE, WA -- Jan. 24, 2019 -- PupPod, the leader in building smart products for animals, announces the close of their seed investment round led by Dr. Roger Mugford, pet industry veteran and founder of The Company of Animals. The financing will be used to fund the next generation of PupPod’s products and platform for canine enrichment and pet parent engagement.

Dr. Mugford has also joined PupPod as a strategic advisor. “As an animal psychologist by training, I’ve spent my 50 year career focused on innovative products that improve the lives of animals,” said Dr. Mugford. “As I learned about PupPod’s technology platform and vision, it became clear to me that software and data are going to substantially disrupt the pet industry and these trends align perfectly with the expectations of millennial pet parents. PupPod has assembled a remarkable team capable of linking pets and technology and I wanted to be involved.”  

“Dr. Mugford and The Company of Animals are the perfect partners to help PupPod bring our vision to a wider market,” said Erick Eidus, CEO of PupPod. PupPod’s platform and smart toys leverage software to create games based on positive reinforcement.

As Dr. Mugford explains, “Behavioral issues are often associated with boredom, but animals are sentient beings who need mental stimulation and many were bred to work. The PupPod platform and products solve this issue by letting animals work for their food and exercise their minds. This can lead to a happier, more balanced pet.”

The PupPod Wobbler game leverages lights, sounds, and timing to create a smart puzzle toy. Game difficulty can be set using the PupPod mobile app. When a dog touches the PupPod Wobbler at the correct time, they earn food rewards from a Bluetooth feeder and the game gets harder as a dog gets smarter. The PupPod mobile app can provide pet parents with insights on how their dog is learning and calorie consumption. The next version of PupPod will enable new scenarios that treat dogs as participants of a connected home and allow pet parents to play with their dog remotely.

About PupPod PupPod is building a software platform and high-tech dog products that promote mental stimulation and physical activity.  The company has developed software-driven dog toys to promote behavior modification and allow humans to interact with the dogs they love in new ways. PupPod brings innovation to a product category that has been stagnant for decades and has received awards from the Purina Pet Care Innovation Prize, Animal Health Investment Forum, TechCrunch, Kickstarter, TiE Angels, Kirkland Investor Sharks, & Bellevue Tech Expo. Learn more at: https://puppod.com.

About Dr. Mugford & The Company of Animals Dr. Mugford is a prolific author, educator and animal welfare advocate. As Britain’s leading animal psychologist and a pioneer in behavioural therapy, he speaks on behalf of animal welfare across the world. In 1979 he founded The Animal Behaviour Centre in Surrey, a referral service for veterinary surgeons and their clients with problem pets. More than 80,000 pets have benefitted from the Centre’s services to date. That same year, he founded The Company of Animals brand where he invented and developed a range of products that have revolutionized the way people train their pets. His clients have included the Queen’s corgies and other Royal family dogs. In 2018, The Company of Animals received the prestegious Queen’s Award for Enterprise, selected by Her Majesty The Queen on the advice of the prime minister.

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