Fresh cash for cat and dog communities
United Dogs and Cats (UDC), the Estonian owners of Web communities Uniteddogs.com and Unitedcats.com, has secured €480,000 in new funding. Investors in the round were the state-owned Estonian Development Fund, the private investor Raivo Hein, as well as existing shareholders Ambient Sound Investments (ASI). ASI, an investment vehicle of some of the co-founders of Skype, previously backed UDC with €150,000 in April 2008, and an undisclosed sum in October 2007.
UDC was founded in 2007, and developed and launched the pet-oriented social networking sites Uniteddogs.com and Unitedcats.com. The sites allow cat and dog owners to make a website for their pet (and add breed, date of birth, lifestyle, favorite food, etc.), take a look at other people’s pets, post comments and communicate with each other. Both sites present fora, where users can ask for advice about veterinarians, health issues, eating habits, trainings or anything related to their cats and dogs.
It may sound somewhat trivial, but there are plenty of Internet-savvy dog and cat lovers out there. The sites are available in ten languages and they have increased their user base to over 200,000. Community membership is free of cost. The company currently makes money from advertising of pet-related products, as well as paid services for its members. The latter includes a Champion membership which enables access to additional features, such as the possibility to add up to 100 photos in each pet profile, receive profile designs, photo albums, e-cards, custom photo frames, etc. Currently, about three quarters of UDC’s revenues come from outside Estonia.
The latest investment will be used to further improve the company’s offering and grow the user base. It plans to introduce new services later this year to bring veterinarians and pet-owners closer.
in Tornado Insider, 11/06/09
