Despite a rather dodgy name that mashes 'companion and animals', Companimals is showing promise, capitalizing on a rapidly growing pet market in Korea. The Seoul-based startup has just announced a $400k investment from K Cube Ventures to make pets and their owners in Korea more happy.
While Koreans love their pets, it is a country where people barely have time to look after themselves, so services that can please pets and owners are becoming big business. And there are an increasing number of options for this, from basic devices that automatically feed and water pets, to robots like Singlepet that allow direct video 'conferenceing' between doting pet owners and their furry freinds.
Companimals (no website yet) aims to be a community platform for pet owners that 'creates an environment in which pets and their owners can live more happily together'. In addition they have either started or plan to execute on a number of other services for those raising pets.
The company is currently developing a mobile application to compliment their existing online presence on Facebook and to buid a stronger bod between pet owners. They aim to make recommendations to community members, based on the details and characteristics of both the pets and ownders. In addition, they hope that in the future there will be more online to offline interactions between community members.
As well as helping to make life more fun for animal lovers and their pets, Companimal are providing practical advice about pet health and reering animals. The company knows that reading manuals on pet health can be boring, so they have undertaken to inject interest by presenting advice in a visual for, or even through video tutorials. The founders also plan to start a pet adoption service.
SeongJae Kim, CEO of Companimals said about their recent investment: “In Korea the popularity of having a pet is increasingly very quickly. There are lots of services for sharing photos and video about pets, as well as for feeding, etc. But there is not enough services that help with actual pet well-being and pet care. This is the niche we are focusing on.”
ShinAh Jeong, Partner K Cube, also commented, “Companimals has a deep understanding of how to raise pets, as well as the discomfort of doing so in a modern urban environment. I am confident that our investment their service will allow them to achieve their goals more quickly. I believe that Companimals will become a mobile service that can change the culture of raising pets in Korea.”
