It was originally a simple promotion at the Seattle Hackathon to promote matching between pet owners and babysitters.
Now, ten years later, Wanderer It is a listed company.
After merging with Nebula Caravel Acquisition Corp, a publicly traded SPAC company sponsored by True Wind Capital, the Seattle-based company will begin trading on the Nasdaq on Monday under the ticker symbol ROVR.
When it was announced in February, the SPAC transaction valued Rover at $1.35 billion.It will inject approximately $240 million into a company that was hit hard at the beginning of the pandemic but has rebounded, thanks in part to Pet adoption rate rises and Increase in pet consumption.
GeekWire was the first media organization to report on Rover, which was triggered by an idea from Seattle venture capitalists Greg Gottesman At the entrepreneurial weekend event held in Seattle in 2011. Rover was initially incubated in the Seattle-based Madrona Venture Group.
Rover now claims to be “the world’s largest online pet care market”, providing pet owners with babysitting services such as boarding, daycare, walking, and grooming. There are more than 500,000 caregivers on the platform, and more than 40 million services have been provided in the United States and nine other countries.
Due to the lack of travel and people working from home, the demand for pet care fell, and the company’s business plummeted when the pandemic began. It laid off 41% of its staff in March 2020.
But this year Rover’s total bookings have rebounded. The total number of bookings in June reached a record 421,000, higher than the 373,000 in June 2019 (due to the pandemic affecting the financial situation in 2020, Rover uses 2019 as a comparable indicator). Total bookings in June reached a record 56.6 million U.S. dollars, up from 41.7 million U.S. dollars in June 2019. In June, Rover’s new customer growth also hit its largest month in history, with 99,000 new bookings.
“We think we are just getting started,” Rover CEO Aaron Eastley Said in an interview with GeekWire. “When you look at the growth, the record in June, our new customer acquisition, it really shows us how far we must go to build this business and become an integral part of the pet owner’s care strategy.”
Eastley is aQuantive’s former head of advertising and will continue to serve as the company’s chief executive officer. He said that going public will help Rover make acquisitions, launch new products, and continue to invest in technologies that help promote market matching mechanisms. He said that cash can also isolate “the ebb and flow of the pandemic.”
After acquiring competitor DogVacay in 2017, Rover has become the major pet seat platform in the United States. Easterly estimates that the company is “16 or 17 times larger” than its closest competitor-possibly Wag, a Silicon Valley-based company Previously supported by SoftBank.
Easterly said that Rover’s main competitors in the United States are still friends, family and neighbors that pet owners traditionally use to take care of their pets when they go out.
As Rover grew, it was also subject to scrutiny for pets disappearing or even dying under the supervision of a babysitter. This is a challenge faced by other gig economy companies such as Uber, which use independent contractors instead of employees.
CNN business Last week, I highlighted several pet owners who used Rover to deal with problems, and stated that they did not receive enough support from the company.
What’s new: I delved into the dark side of the upcoming pet service company Rover. Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have spoken to six dog owners whose dogs have disappeared or died under the care of homeless nanny: https://t.co/qKfqs1ge1p
— Sara Ashley O’Brien (@saraashleyo) July 30, 2021
When asked about the CNN business story, Rover provided the following statement:
“Our mission is to let everyone experience love for pets. As a team motivated by a common love for pets, we are committed to helping people get quality pet care, so if someone has a negative experience, our The heart will be heavy. We work hard every day to improve the platform so that every experience on Rover is positive.”
Easterly stated that the safety of pets and humans in the Rover market is a “first priority”. He said the company realizes that the larger the scale, the more likely it is to dissatisfied customers.
“You need to be able to see these things and say,’Hey, is there anything we can do differently? Is there anything we can learn?'” Easterly said.
in a Investor introduction Starting earlier this year, Rover expects revenue of US$97 million in 2021 and US$201 million in 2022. Rover expects to be profitable by 2022, with adjusted EBITDA of US$35 million. It recently raised its full-year forecast in May and will report its second-quarter earnings next Monday.
Rover has raised $281 million in equity financing, including a $155 million round of financing in 2018, which valued the company at Report US$970 million. Its private investors include A-Grade Investments, CrunchFund, Foundry Group, Madrona Venture Group, Menlo Ventures, Petco, Rolling Bay Ventures, TCV and Spark Capital.
Just before the pandemic hit, Rover moved into a new 75,000 square foot headquarters in Seattle. Easterly said that the company plans to retain this space, but employees will have more options to work from home.
Rover has 320 employees worldwide—up from approximately 275 when it was laid off in March 2020—including 200 employees at the Seattle headquarters and 81 employees in Spokane, Washington. This is the latest company to test the open market in the Seattle area this year. Other companies include Icosavax, a biotech company that had an initial public offering last week. Nautilus Biotechnology, another company listed on the SPAC transaction, went public in June.
SPAC sponsor True Wind is a San Francisco-based private equity firm that manages more than $2 billion in funds and has experience in listed companies working with companies such as GoDaddy and NXP. It participated in the first SPAC last year, and launched the automated lending platform Open Lending in June 2020.The company also owns Several other SPAC vehicles.
Last year, SPACs merged to become a popular alternative to the traditional initial public offering process, providing a faster way to go public. SPACs are also known as “blank check” companies, usually without a mature business, and are used to raise funds for future mergers or acquisitions before a certain period of time through public offerings.
The craze around SPACs has cooled down this year. Part of the reason is that the SEC modified the approval process, which delayed the completion of the SPAC transaction. Information reportedSome companies’ cash is also lower than expected because SPAC shareholders can withdraw their funds before voting on the transaction; this may also lead to a substantial decline in valuation. For example, Rover stated that it planned to raise US$325 million from the SPAC merger, but eventually raised US$240 million. According to statistics, SPAC’s aftermarket performance dropped by more than 20% after peaking earlier this year. IPOX SPAC Index.