The growing urban middle class with a keen interest in pet ownership has been behind the surge of once-outlandish products and services like pet swimming pools and pet barbershops.
Brown puppy lying beside squash. Image credit: Jamie Street on Unsplash.
As Chinese investment portal PEdaily reported (in Chinese) on May 28, pet food brand Crazy Dog (疯狂小狗) announced its Series B funding round of CNY 300 million (USD 44 million), led by Guangdian Capital (光点资本) and FOSUN (复星投资).
In a company notice, Cui Jia (崔佳), founder of Crazy Dog, said that new funding will be mainly used to promote the company's brand, improve operations and ameliorate distribution channels. Prior to this latest round of financing, the company had raised CNY 100 million (USD 14.4 million) from its Series A, started by Tiantu Capital and Ares Capital in March 2018.
Founded in 2014, Crazy Dog Pet Products (疯狂小狗宠物用品), parent of Crazy Dog, focuses on pet food R&D and manufacturing. Its business model comprises pet food production and marketing as well as online customer service. The company recently is weighing the inclusion of pet health products and pet daily necessities as one of the main market segments it aims to target.
Crazy Dog's strategy is centered on the slogan "channel with brand, brand with channel" ("渠道带品牌、品牌带渠道"). The brand has been developing quickly since establishment in 2016. The trajectory of its sales growth has been breathtaking, with revenue of CNY 600 million (USD 86.8 million) in 2018, almost double the CNY 320 million (USD 46.3 million) a year before. Crazy Dog is apparently becoming a decent market player with the capacity to compete against international brands widely represented in China.
The growing urban middle class with a keen interest in pet ownership has been behind the surge of once-outlandish products and services like pet swimming pools and pet barbershops.
According to a report (in Chinese) published by web portal Goumin (狗民), an online community for dog lovers, the total number of pets (cats and dogs) in China amounted to 91 million in 2018, averaging three pets for every 10 households, according to official statistics (in Chinese) released by the National Bureau of Statistics. The value of China's pet market reached CNY 175 billion (USD 25 billion) in 2018 and is expected to grow 13% this year.