Wag!

Wag Labs (Wag!) was founded by Joshua Viner, Jonathan Viner, and Jason Meltzer, who previously operated a traditional dog walking business. The company was launched as the first on-demand dog walking service and has since expanded to offer other services such as in-home and digital pet training, drop-in visits, pet sitting, pet boarding, and virtual veterinary services. The cost of a Wag! dog walk is determined by the length of the walk and starts at USD 20 per 30-minute walk. Customers can obtain veterinary services at a one-time fee of USD 30 (valid for 24 hours) and a membership fee of USD 9.99 per month. Wag! services were initially launched in Los Angeles and New York before expanding to 5,200 cities across all 50 states (as of June 2022).

In November 2022, the company launched “Neighborhood Network,” a new way for locals to connect with nearby pet sitters. The new service provides users with access to more than 400,000 vetted, 5-star rated dog walkers, sitters, and trainers, spread across more than 90,000 area and city guides across all 50 states in the US. In April 2024, the company launched "Furscription," a new solution designed to streamline and optimize various aspects of pet care management, including scheduling, communication, and coordination between pet owners and service providers.

In May 2024, Wag! unveiled a new insurance comparison platform called "WeCompare.com."

In January 2023, the company acquired Dog Food Advisor,  an independent dog food reviews and ratings searchable platform, for a cash consideration of USD 9 million to further expand its solutions. In February 2024, Wag! acquired WoofWoofTV, a leading social media brand for pet lovers, to leverage WoofWoofTV's broad reach to organically grow its platform while focusing on social media content creation.

Key customers and partnerships

In May 2022, the company partnered with Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, a hotel and restaurant brand owned by IHG Hotels & Resorts, to provide dog walking services (on-property and at-home) for guests staying at the hotel properties nationwide. In June 2022, the firm partnered with Tractor Supply, a rural lifestyle retail store operator, and its subsidiary Petsense, a pet specialty retailer, to provide a range of pet care services for its customers.   

Funding and financials

Wag! is the highest privately funded company operating in the on-demand pet care industry, with USD 361.5 million raised as of February 2022. In January 2018, the company raised the largest funding amount, USD 300 million, led by Softbank Vision Fund. As of September 2019, Wag! accounted for around 16% of the market share.

In February 2022, the company entered into an agreement to merge with CHW Acquisition Corp , a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), in a transaction that sets Wag!’s enterprise value at ~USD 350 million. The firm also expects to achieve a revenue target of more than USD 70 million by 2023 and to reach a positive adjusted EBITDA by Q2 2024.

For the full-year 2022 (FY2022), the company reported YoY revenue growth of 173% to USD 54.9 million. However, the net loss had widened by more than 5x to USD 38.6 million, mainly due to inclusive one-time transaction costs of USD 39.5 million. Despite this, the company still managed to achieve an adjusted EBITDA of USD 3.9 million. On the back of robust Q1 2023 performance, Wag! revised its FY2023 guidance, expected revenue to range from USD 80 million to USD 84 million, an increase from the previous range of USD 75 million to USD 77 million. The adjusted EBITDA was projected to range from break-even to a profit of  USD 1 million, compared to the previous range of break-even to a loss of USD 2 million.