PetFlow gets $10M for online pet food shopping

Deja Vu?

Are pets making a comeback in e-commerce? Could be. Earlier today, Quidsi announced the launch of Wag.com, to the tech-bubble shrieks of the media, given its likeness to Pets.com, and now PetFlow.com is announcing its $10 million Series B round of funding led by LightSpeed Venture Partners.

Founded in 2010, PetFlow offers a few unique features to differentiate itself from its pet-centered contemporaries. For one thing, PetFlow only offers high-quality health-conscious foods, so you won’t find any Puppy Chow or Kibbles & Bits on the site. Secondly, PetFlow offers a unique automated delivery schedule that shoppers can create to ensure they never run out of food. For example, my Queensland Heelers go through a 30-pound bag of allergen-free/grain-free dog food (I’ve previously mentioned that my dogs have sensitive stomachs) every two weeks, so I could simply set up an automatic delivery schedule whereby a bag of dog food will be dropped off every two weeks.

Or, if I wanted to go the more economical route, I could have two bags of dog food delivered once a month and get the flat rate $4.95 on shipping to cover both bags. (Today only, PetFlow is offering free shipping on orders of $59 or more.)

And for users who aren’t sure what type of food to buy for their pet, the site makes research and navigation easy with categories for age, lifestyle, type of food, special conditions, and more.

“Most pet food today is bought by women, who have to haul 40 pound bags of dog food from the store to their car, and then from their car to their home. It's heavy, it's expensive, and sometimes they run out unexpectedly with little time to run to the store and buy more. That's a bad user experience, and it makes no sense given the evolution of e-commerce,” said Juistin Caldbeck, managing director of Lightspeed Venture Partners. “When we met Alex and Joe, two world-class entrepreneurs who have built $100M+ web businesses in the past, they showed us the momentum that they've generated at Petflow, and we knew that they had found a better way. Our funding will turbo charge their growth as it did for our other e-commerce portfolio companies such as Living Social, Blue Nile, Bonobos, and Shoedazzle."

PetFlow currently ships 500,000 pounds of pet food per month.

The company plans to use the new funds to grow infrastructure, hire more employees, and boost marketing.