In the year 2010 Renaldo Webb was a graduate of MIT with the degree of B.S. in Physics and was aware that no matter how difficult it might have been to obtain the coveted degree, but it wasn’t the thing he wanted to accomplish.
“I quickly learned I wasn’t going to solve string theory and that I wanted to do something different with my life,” Webb states.
He worked in a variety of positions as an analyst at McKinsey in LA as well as an associate of senior status in a private equity firm located in New York. It was 2015 that he decided to enter a industry he’s always felt passionate about: the world of pet food. As the pet owner, Webb founded PetPlate, an online pet food store that cooks fresh that recently announced that it has received $19 million in a the Series B round of funding that was led by Pendulum.
Webb came up with the idea of the company while working with pet food businesses as a consultant and realized that the inferior ingredients used in pet food were the root cause of many ailments in pets, including overweight.
“I wanted to provide a higher quality product where you can trust the ingredients and it was personalized where it meets the needs of your dog,” Webb declares.
The method by which PetPlate operates is by delivering individual meal plans that are delivered directly to owners’ homes. When a potential client joins they are required to fill in details about the dog like the breed, allergies, levels, or body condition, which is why the algorithm will take into consideration the information points. It will then suggest specific meals to users along with portioning directions to ensure that they aren’t feeding their dog too much or too little.
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PetPlate’s food products are made at an in-house food kitchen located in Dallas and delivered directly to the customer’s doorstep and to the retail stores we partner with.
“We are a human grade pet food company, which means that all of the ingredients we use is cooked, processed and delivered follows human food safety guidelines,” Webb declares. “All of our ingredients you can find at a local grocery store, we formulated them for dogs with the help of our veterinary nutritionists.”
A subscription-based business, PetPlate generates nearly 95% of its revenue comes from subscription, though it’s starting to build brick and mortar business.
While the cost depends on the size of the dog and similar parameters, Webb says that on average it costs clients $100 per month. The company’s year over year growth numbers are around the 100% mark, and since the company has launched in 2017 it has delivered 15 million meals to pet owners across the U.S.