Start-up pet food companies are being targeted by investors expecting to see handsome financial returns from this profitable sector. Just in the past week two relatively new companies have secured big investment to grow their businesses.
First, a new cat food business, started by a brother and sister, secured a £4.5m investment to help the company expand across the UK.
Brett and Nikki O’Farrell started KatKin in 2019 because they believed pet food options available on the market didn’t provide cats with the nutrition they needed to live a healthy life.
They now aim to create the ‘healthiest cat food in the world’, with a 95% fresh, real meat content and zero fillers and preservatives.
The £4.5m investment, achieved in a seed funding round led by Octopus Ventures, will support the KatKin’s plans to make healthy fresh cat food more accessible. It will also allow the company to develop its personalised products to ensure that every cat receives their exact nutritional requirements.
Brett O’Farrell said: “We’re building a world class team that puts cats first and are on a mission to improve the lives of cats, as well as their owners. We’re grateful for the early support of our angel investors and Octopus, which enables us to continue investing in our product and customer experience and to further extend our reach in the UK.”
The second start-up company to win investment was Denzel’s, the healthy dog snack brand. It received a six-figure investment from Richard Branson’s daughter Holly and a handful of strategic investors, putting the company in position to grow 16-fold by 2022.
The business, which has a growing range of healthy snacks for dogs, was founded by millennial entrepreneurs, Nathan Perry (30) and James Lacy (29).
Denzel’s launched in 2018 with initial funding from Virgin StartUp. Within 12 months the brand was stocked in over 1,500 locations and had grown by more than 500% by the end of year two, having also secured distribution in Ireland, Germany, Austria, Denmark and Dubai.
Holly Branson, head of the Viurgin Investment Fund said: “Denzel’s is a great brand and has huge potential. They have already proved to be highly successful and I am extremely excited to be part of their future.
“I’m a huge advocate for innovative, socially-conscious, sustainable brands that are run by individuals that place as much importance on their positive impact on society, as they do on profit. Denzel’s fast growth and ambition to shake up an established £3.2 Billion UK pet food market by encouraging them to be more sustainable and accountable for the quality of their ingredients, is what has attracted me to Denzel’s.”
James Lacy, co-founder of Denzel’s, commented: “With 26% of UK households being dog owners, coupled with an increasing appetite for healthier and more sustainable living, it makes perfect sense that people will want to give their dogs snacks that are better for them.
“We have a number of products that are easily accessible, and we have seen a phenomenal response and rapid growth as a result. However, to take our brand to the next level, we recognised that we needed investment; not just financially, but with someone that shared our values and would invest in us as young entrepreneurs.
“Holly was a no brainer; not only does she have all the qualities that we were looking for but, as our first business loan was with Virgin StartUp, there were already strong synergies.”
Pictured above, From left to right: Nathan Perry, James Lacy and Holly Branson.