Petcube, a Ukrainian tech company that develops pet-monitoring devices, has attracted a new round of $10 million in investment to develop and market new devices and expand its distribution network to South America.
The latest investment round for Petcube was led by Y Combinator, AVentures, and Almaz Capital. It came shortly after Petcube acquired Canadian startup PetBot in order to deepen its expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning for future its products.
“PetBot did some amazing development around artificial intelligence, which we will be incorporating into our products,” Yaroslav Azhnyuk, Petcube’s CEO, told the Kyiv Post on Oct. 24, a day before the new investment was announced.
“Eventually, we think that we will be able to give pets a voice to better understand them. We’re now trying to connect all pets to the internet. And then, from their behavior, to learn about them better.”
“I believe our company is becoming a 21st century research institution.”
According to market researcher Euromonitor, the world’s pet care industry is estimated to be worth $110 billion, and will increase to $128 billion by 2020 – mostly because of technologies that will allow owners to interact with their pets over the internet.
Petcube has already attracted a total of $14 million in investment. Its best-selling pet cameras and software connect people to their pets over the Internet, allowing them to talk to them, monitor them by video, and even play with them using a remote-controlled laser pointer.
Petcube products are available in over 18 countries and sold through over 5,000 retail locations in Europe, North America and the Pacific Rim. Sellers include Best Buy, Petco, Bed Bath, and Beyond, in addition to Amazon.
The company is headquartered in San Francisco in the United Stated and has offices in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and in Shenzhen, China.
The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by Ciklum. The content is independent of the donors.
