In collaboration with Kinship and Michelson Found Animals Foundation, Leap Ventures held a weeklong bootcamp program this past week for female-led, early stage startups looking to break into the pet care industry. The program, formally known as the Leap Venture Academy Bootcamp, is a free, invitation only opportunity for women business leaders and entrepreneurs to build their company in the areas of pet food, pet technology, pet wellness, and more.
13 companies were invited to Los Angeles to network, attend workshops, and discuss growth topics at fireside chats on how to keep pets safe with their owners and improve the animal care industry. The Bootcamp chose to only open its doors to women to diversity the industry and help female-led startups obtain capital, an often challenging feat in an area heavily dominated by men.
Companies from all over the industry will attend, including a company that sells sustainable pet food, a company that offers more efficient dog daycare, and a company that built a dog-lovers dating app. Many of the companies also focus on pet health, telehealth and education platforms, affordable therapeutics for dogs, and an app that monitors the temperature of dogs to prevent heatstroke.
“The pet care industry’s explosive growth shows no signs of abating, and there are boundless opportunities for brands to grow innovative solutions that improve the lives of pets,” said Ben Jacobs, Head of Ventures and Partnerships at Kinship. “Since we launched Leap in 2017, we’ve been able to help springboard hundreds of startups through our Academy and a dozen companies through our exclusive accelerator program. The Bootcamp provides another opportunity for us to help early-stage companies advance to the next stage.”
