- This year’s programme welcomes a diverse range of start-ups including AI technology which detects illness in pets, at-home screening tests for pets, as well as smart home tech to help alleviate pet anxiety
- 2024 start-ups come from across the globe including the UK, France, Greece, Austria, Singapore, Canada, Brazil and Mexico
Vevey, Switzerland – 27th FEBRUARY 2024: Unleashed by Purina, Europe’s leading pet care company and accelerator, today unveils the eight start-ups which will participate in its ‘Unleashed by Purina’ accelerator programme. The programme, now in its fifth year, supports and propels new generations of disruptive pet-tech and pet-care start-ups.
This year’s line-up of innovative new businesses includes home screening tests for pets to identify health risks, a smart tech device to help ease pet anxiety, as well as digital platforms for vet care and boarding. With representatives from the UK, France, Greece, Austria, Singapore, Canada, Brazil and Mexico, this year’s start-ups are the most international yet.
The Unleashed programme is powered by the Purina Accelerator Lab. By offering resources to start-ups that are integrating technology into pet-care products and services in novel and innovative ways, the Lab contributes to the growth of the pet-care start-up ecosystem.
Purina provides each start-up on the Unleashed programme with a personalized scaling package that includes business and technology assistance tailored to their specific stage of growth. The companies also receive expert coaching and access to Purina’s deep commercial insights to help drive their growth.
The programme lasts 20 weeks, with mentoring and support offered from a range of Purina experts alongside industry experts. Drawing on almost 130 years of Purina history and powerful R&D and commercial capabilities, the programme includes a structured and funded project of up to CHF 50,000 per start-up to help them realise their ambitions.
The start-ups participating in Unleashed by Purina 2024 include:
Kim Bill, Head of the Purina Accelerator Lab, added: “We are so impressed with the determination and creativity of the 2024 Unleashed by Purina start-ups. We’ve seen such ingenious ideas and entrepreneurial spirit, which makes it so satisfying to be able to utilise Purina’s resources to help these companies transform pet care around the world. Unleashed really does offer an unrivalled opportunity for entrepreneurs with best-in-class mentoring and funding – the success of previous participants is testament to this.”
Unleashed success stories
Since its inception, Unleashed has accelerated 33 start-ups, including Animoscope, a telehealth pet-care service provider based in France, which went on to secure €1M funding and has now performed more than 100.000 ‘Vetichecks’.
Dogami, a Swiss entertainment company was part of the 2023 programme, developed a mobile-first web3 game featuring dog avatars and has now experienced exponential growth in customer base, celebrating five million races completed.
Since participating in Unleashed, VetChip, an animal health monitoring business, has secured series A Funding. The business had also accelerated the development of its technology and is continuing to expand having established two technology trial sites in the US with plans to bring more online in the next 12 months.
Markus Zengerer, CEO & CO-Founder of Pezz Life, said: “Our team is passionate about enhancing and improving pet ownership. To have the opportunity to receive tailored mentoring and funding to help scale our business is a dream. We’re in good company too and so inspired by the calibre of start-ups in this year’s programme.”
To find out more about Unleashed by Purina, please visit: www.unleashedbypurina.com.