(PRESS RELEASE) eTailPet, a Los Angeles-based startup that empowers independent pet stores to facilitate online sales, announced $800,000 in seed funding led by Moonshots Capital. Other participants in the round include well-known individual investors from the pet industry including executives from Tuffy’s, the maker of Nutrisource and Pure Vita premium pet food brands, and United Pacific Pet, a regional independent pet supplies distributor serving California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii.
The funding will be used to accelerate growth of the proven business. As part of the funding, Kelly Perdew, co-founder and managing general partner at Moonshots Capital, and Michael Baker of Pet Food Experts, the largest independent pet supplies distributor, will both join the board.
In 2014, Berenice Giannini and her husband Marco began a small chain of brick-and-mortar pet stores in Southern California. It quickly became evident that if they were going to succeed, their stores would need to have an online presence to serve the surrounding community and neighborhoods and to compete against the retail industry giants like Petco and Amazon.
An off-the-shelf option for shop online/pickup in-store was not available for smaller independent chains of stores. Giannini, with a data and programming background, designed and built an omnichannel enterprise system with a smart order algorithm for inventory management and POS integrated with their site.
“I quickly realized after launching the software in our stores and seeing the success that this was bigger than just our stores. What excites me the most is the opportunity to enable pet retailers to connect with their customers digitally and bring new customers to independent pet,” Giannini said. “The support we have received from manufacturers and distributors in our channel validates the need for our platform.”
Specifically, eTailPet’s cloud based e-commerce platform allows pet store owners to:
Advertisement
- Better connect with their customers by sending them to their website and not a third party
- Choose what they want to offer online, a few items or the entire eTailPet catalog (35,000+ skus)
- Allow customers to pre-order all of their items for pick-up or delivery
- Communicate directly with customers regarding orders
- Maintain their customer data
And the eTailPet enterprise solution allows large chains to manage all their stores on a single platform.
“We’re extremely excited to be investing in Bere and eTailPet since it is a very compelling SaaS solution for local, independent pet stores. Bere’s background in the pet industry and dynamic leadership style gives us confidence in the company’s moonshot potential,” Perdew said. “Moreover, with the humanization of pets in America, the pet industry is not only rapidly growing, but is highly recession proof as well.”
Moonshots Capital, with offices in Los Angeles and Austin, was founded by a team of veterans in 2017. It has collectively operated 14 companies, and has invested in more than 70 ventures.
