SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rover.com, the nation’s largest network of pet sitters and dog walkers, today announced a $40 million Series E round, led by Foundry Group and Menlo Ventures. Madrona Venture Group also participated in the financing. All three venture capital firms are existing investors that wanted to increase their share in Rover.
“Every once in a while, you have the opportunity to back a category-defining company,” said Venky Ganesan, managing director at Menlo Ventures. “At Menlo we have been fortunate to back companies like Uber, Siri, Hotmail and Gilead Sciences. Rover is on that trajectory and that’s why we decided to double down and go all in on this investment.”
Rover is on track to nearly triple its revenue again this year, after nearly tripling last year. Its network of sitters has grown more than 50 percent year over year, now topping over 65,000 sitters and dog walkers throughout the country. Currently, an average of one million services are booked a quarter—a service every eight seconds.
“We are incredibly grateful for the continued support of our investors and their desire to increase their investment in our company,” said Aaron Easterly, CEO of Rover. “Over the last three years, we have grown nine times faster than the next largest competitor and are the market share leader in every major metropolitan area. This is a testament to the talented, passionate and hard-working team at Rover.”
The significant new backing will empower Rover to continue redefining the pet care space through product developments, geographical expansion and continued market growth. The company could also use this capital to fund merger and acquisition activity. Prior to the Series E, Rover had raised $51.5 million.
“In addition to being the largest pet sitting company in the U.S., the rapid adoption of our daytime services has also made us the largest dog walking company,” said Easterly. “However, we are just scratching the surface of what is possible. There is so much more we can do to provide access to convenient, safe, and affordable pet care options.”
Rover recently introduced new technology into its mobile apps, enabling its sitters to provide unmatched transparency and peace of mind to their clients. This new feature, called Rover Cards, allows pet sitters and dog walkers to easily track and share information with owners, including when they arrived at the home, a GPS map of the dog’s walk, a personal message from the sitter, photos of the dog while in their care, and notes of any bathroom breaks along the way.
“We are thrilled with the progress that the Rover team has made, both as investors in the business and as users of the platform,” said Seth Levine, co-founder and managing director at Foundry Group. “We’re excited to take this next step with the Rover team.”
About Rover
Rover.com connects pet parents with the nation’s largest marketplace of loving and trustworthy pet sitters and dog walkers. Through Rover, pet parents can discover, book, and manage personalized care for their dogs, including in-home dog boarding, pet sitting, dog walking, and doggy day care. Founded on the belief that everyone should have the opportunity to experience the unconditional love of a dog, Rover improves and simplifies life for pet parents and the dogs they love. By removing common pet care obstacles, Rover ensures dogs nationwide are happy and well-cared for even when their owner is away and empowers dog lovers to live fulfilling lives. Services are booked through Rover every minute of every day, and more than 92% of the population lives within a short drive of one of the more than 65,000 sitters who’ve listed their services. Over 95% of reviewed bookings have received a perfect 5-star rating. The platform offers premium insurance for all services booked through Rover, secure online payments, world-class customer support, vet consultations, a 24/7 team of trust and safety experts, Rover Cards with walk mapping and activity tracking, mobile apps, photo and video sharing, and general background checks for sitters.
About Menlo Ventures
Menlo Ventures provides capital for seed to growth consumer and enterprise technology companies. Since 1976, the firm’s market-driven analysis has led to the identification of opportunities and successful investments in innovative technology markets. Notable areas of investment have included mobile/mobile marketplaces (Siri, Uber, Machine Zone, Roku, Rover.com, Getaround, Munchery), social & ecommerce (Tumblr, Lumosity, Poshmark), Cloud (Carbonite, EdgeCast, Dropcam, Vidyo), Storage & Big Data (3Par, Coraid, Tintri, Avere Systems), digital advertising (Flurry, YuMe, DataXu, Dstillery, eXelate), and security (Cavium, IronPort, nCircle, BitSight, vArmour). Menlo’s portfolio includes more than 70 public companies and more than 100 mergers and acquisitions. Menlo Ventures has $4.65 billion under management and is currently investing Menlo Ventures XII, a $400 million fund with $15 million allocated to the Menlo Talent Fund for fast seed funding, and the Menlo Opportunity Fund, a $250 million fund that targets solely early growth investments. For more information, visit www.menlovc.com.
About Foundry Group
Foundry Group is a venture capital firm that invests in information technology, Internet, and software startups. It works alongside entrepreneurs to give birth to new technologies and to build those technologies into industry-leading companies. It is located in Boulder, CO but invests in companies across North America.
