Rover Group, a US platform that connects pet owners to walkers and sitters, is buying Dublin-based marketplace Gudog as it eyes more buyouts and organic growth in Europe.
Alternative asset giant Blackstone shelled out $2.3 billion (€2 billion) in cash to take Rover private in February 2024, enabling the Seattle-based company to add users by acquiring other pet platforms, including feline-focused Cat In A Flat in October.
With the Gudog acquisition, Rover is reaching new territory in Ireland and Denmark, while adding 20,000 dog sitters and walkers across Europe, according to a statement. Before becoming a target, Gudog was itself a serial dog-sitting platform acquirer, the company’s website shows.
“We’ve greenlighted some investments that would’ve been harder to explain to our public market investors,” Rover co-founder and chief executive, Aaron Easterly, said in an interview. “The capital that Blackstone has, whether it’s equity or debt, is really amazing.”
The strategy seems to be working. Revenue grew 13 per cent last year to about $264 million while gross booking value climbed about 10 per cent to $1.1 billion, Rover said.
That was a turnaround from its fortunes as a public company, when its shares dropped 27 per cent from the day it began trading after a merger with a blank-check company until Blackstone announced the take-private. Terms of the Gudog transaction weren’t disclosed in the statement.
Rover plans to expand to more countries in Europe, its fastest-growing region for first-time users, the statement shows. Rover has earmarked about $15 million to invest in new markets over the next five years and has its sights set on Switzerland, Finland, Austria, Poland and Belgium.
“Europe has a similar relationship to their pets that the US has,” Mr Easterly said, adding that the “pet-as-a-child dynamic” is crucial for Rover’s success. The geography also presents an opportunity different from the US, where dog adoptions have moderated from their Covid pandemic era records.
Across the globe, Mr Easterly hopes to convince more pet owners who lean on family and friends for pet care stopgaps to see the benefit of a commercial solution.
That view is partly personal. Before Rover got its start in 2011, Mr Easterly had trouble finding someone to watch Caramel, his four-pound Pomeranian, when he travelled for work.
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He also knows first-hand the increasing power pets have over owners’ wallets, a trend he expects to drive organic growth.
“They own me,” Mr Easterly said of his two current pooches, a pomsky named London and a mini ausiedoodle named Tux.
While on the hunt for more businesses to buy, Rover is also exploring options for connecting pet owners with physical day cares, grooming services and a pet training offering.
“We just want to go down the list of pet parents’ needs that are not well-serviced by existing options,” Mr Easterly said. “We’re open for business on the M&A front, both in Europe and beyond, and our current services and beyond.”
In a statement to The Irish Times, Rover said the company’s focus was on a “smooth integration, and the Gudog team is an essential part of that”.
“As we push for growth and scale our operations, we anticipate expanding our presence in Ireland,” the statement said, noting that the founders of the Irish company are set to remain with the company “for the foreseeable future”. – Bloomberg
