Wag! to Acquire Dog Food Advisor in $9M Deal

Wag! Group plans to buy Dog Food Advisor from Clicks and Traffic for $9 million.

The pet care platform said in a Tuesday (Jan. 3) press release that its acquisition of the dog food marketplace — which remains subject to customary closing conditions — will mark its entrance into the $50 billion pet food and treats market.

“This acquisition demonstrates a commitment to our long-term strategic initiatives of measured expansion, opportunistic mergers and acquisitions, and becoming an all-inclusive, trusted partner for the premium pet parent,” Wag! CEO and Chairman Garrett Smallwood said in the release.

The Wag! Platform already offers on-demand access to pet care, pet insurance and expert pet advice. More than 12.1 million services have been completed through the platform, according to the press release.

With the acquisition of Dog Food Advisor, it will add a platform that has more than 10 years of experience helping pet owners select dog food by supplying research, reviews and ratings. The site has had 24 million visitors in the last two years, the release said.

The transaction is expected to close during the first quarter, per the release.

“This is the latest example of how Wag! is expanding and diversifying its business mix throughout the pet industry, while continuing to leverage the unrivaled data that our platform naturally holds,” Smallwood said in the release.

The surge in pet adoption during the pandemic has created more opportunities for providers of pet-care services, Wag! Vice President of Customer Success, Trust and Safety David Cane told PYMNTS in an April 2021 interview.

Wag! dog walkers and pet care givers are often gig workers and want to get paid for these jobs swiftly and seamlessly, Cane said at the time.

“I think more and more, third-party contractors are joining or signing up and onboarding to platforms similar to Wag!, and when you do that, you have a lot more transactions being processed in a day,” Cane said. “So, accuracy becomes extremely important.”

Beyond that, the old-school pet owner model is being rapidly replaced with a “pets are people too” mentality, Petco Senior Vice President, Omnichannel Experience Jenny Wolski told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in a December interview.

That mentality is showing up in retail and veterinary omnichannel innovations, Wolski said at the time.