Our Leap team spent over 30 hours on Zoom with an incredible group of diverse founders from around the world for our 3rd Leap Venture Academy Bootcamp. As everyone in this industry knows, pet care is booming! And to best uplift innovation and technology, Leap is dedicated to supporting the best pet care founders who represent every pet parent. Our Bootcamp program is focused on supporting founders who identify as female and/or POC because even today in 2021, only 2.6% of venture dollars went to minorities and 2.2% went to women.

This year, we received a record breaking number of applications from all over the world, which shows how much this industry is growing and innovating in new areas. The 15 Bootcamp companies for this year were selected for their unique innovation and impact on the ecosystem:

• Alfred (South Korea): Alfred produces eco-friendly pet products to help create more comfortable living for pets and their parents.
• Argos & Artemis (London, UK): Argos & Artemis is a community and lifestyle platform for dog parents, launching science-backed premium pet grooming products made by leading beauty and veterinary experts.
• Black Dawg Bark (New Orleans, LA): Your pets’ fairy godmother! Using magic (and over 10 years of experience) to help guide and support your pets.
• Bright Planet Pet (Minneapolis, MN): Bright Planet Pet makes plant-based treats for dogs that taste like real meat!
• Bundle x Joy (Phoenix, AZ): Bundle x Joy is a women-owned pet brand connecting dog moms on a mission to find curation and community with purpose.
• Earl Greyhound (Los Angeles ,CA): The world’s first cell-cultured dog treat.
• FareVet (Montreal, Canada): FareVet is an app where pet parents can find and compare affordable veterinary costs.
• Finder Pets (San Francisco, CA): Finder Pets connects future pet parents to reputable breeders, adoption shelters, and rescue centers and provides pets with safe and secure transportation to their new homes.
• GetWelp (London, UK): Helping dogs, their owners, and their trainers lead emotionally healthier and happier lives.
• Hound (Denver, CO): Hound is building a better experience for the people of veterinary medicine through their suite of talent management and employee experience software.
• Rallie (Memphis, TN): Rallie is enhanced water for dogs that supports high-performance and all-purpose play using hydrogen technology, vitamins, and electrolytes for overachieving hydration.
• Scout9 (Seattle, WA): Scout9’s digital Pocket Scout takes the guesswork out of caring for a new dog by providing pet parents with intuitive advice specific to their puppy’s needs.
• Skoop (Bronx, NY): Skoop is a visiting veterinary nurse service that is devoted to assisting pet families with medical care at home.
• The Animals Kitchen (Toronto, Canada): The Animals Kitchen is an online recipe community and make-at-home pet food brand that empowers pet parents to cook sustainable and nutritious pet food at home.
• Vetsie (Calgary, Canada): Vetsie is an all-in-one communication platform that provides triage, telemedicine, and client communication with the goal of increasing the well-being and accessibility of veterinary professionals and pet parents.

Over the course of the four days of Bootcamp, these companies spoke to a variety of leaders within pet care and the startup space through mentor office hours, founder fireside chats, workshops, and panels. Through the mentor office hours, founders engaged one-on-one with experts across veterinary care, food and nutrition, technology, investment, and more. These meetings provided the founders with knowledge and connections to get them to the next stage of their growth. Our panels spanned topics like product development, channel strategies, B2B and B2C growth strategies, leveraging data, and more. We are so grateful for the greater Leap community that mentored and spoke to the Bootcamp founders.

At the end of the Bootcamp, each of the participants voted for the founder that is creating the greatest impact on pet care, is the best supporter of our Leap community, and who will most benefit from financial support. Whitney Hardy, founder of Rallie, is the recipient of our $20,000 peer-voted Bootcamp award! Rallie is developing enhanced water for dogs that supports high-performance and all-purpose play using hydrogen technology, vitamins, and electrolytes. We’re so excited to see where Rallie will go!

The Bootcamp is a huge investment of time away from building a startup. Beyond the mentorship and community building, Leap also wanted to provide financial support to each founder who joined us. In addition to the $20,000 peer-voted award, we also provided a surprise award of $5,000 to each of the incredible founders to help grow their startups!

The engagement, collaboration, and resilience of these Bootcamp founders inspired us (and got us through all the Zoom calls), and we are so thrilled to see all of them grow and continue to make strides in the pet care industry!