Cat Food Brand Smalls Raises $19 Million To Expand Its Feline-Focused Mission
Summary
Other investors in the round were Left Lane Capital, Valor Capital, and the Ohio State University endowment fund.The company does not reveal its revenues, but its sales were in the eight figures in 2022, and sales typically have doubled, year-over-year, since it was launched in 2017, according to a company spokesperson.Much of the attention in the fresh, refrigerated, and frozen pet food space lately has been focused on meal options for dogs. Pet food and treats made up more than 40% of that spending, with the food category up 16.2%.According to the APPA, 46.5 million U.S. households own cats, compared to 65.1 million dog households.Pet retailer Petco recently announced that it was partnering with Freshpet to offer fresh-food subscription meal plans for dogs through its ecommerce website. Last year it partnered with the JustFoodForDogs brand to offer a new line of frozen meals for dogs in its stores.Blue Buffalo, the premium brand owned by General Mills is testing a line of refrigerated dog food in 200 stores.Another cat-focused startup, Cat Person, launched in 2020 backed by the Harrys Labs innovation fund, sells cat foods as well as supplies like beds and litter boxes.Michaelson and his co-founder started Smalls by mixing up batches of fresh cat food in his New York apartment, using vet-recommended recipes. The company has seen over the past six to 12 months that there is a clear path to profitability with the current direct-to-consumer model, he said.Before the company moves into retail distribution, we want to make sure we get it right, he said, and pick the right retail channels to be in.Smalls was one of the startups that got a scare when the bank that handled all of its money, Silicon Valley Bank, failed. Michaelson said the scare fortunately turned out to be a short-lived nightmare and that Smalls quickly was able to gain full access to its funds.Just as cats and dogs are very different animal, a cat-focused pet food company has the potential to be a very different animal than the competition, Michaelson said.Cindy Cole, DVM and technical partner at Companion Fund, the Mars-affiliated fund, agrees.