Petcube is a technology company that designs and develops

smart devices A smart device is an electronic device, generally connected to other devices or networks via different wireless protocols (such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, near-field communication, Wi-Fi, LiFi, or 5G) that can operate to some extent interactively and ...

for pets which combine cameras with treat dispensers and laser pointer toys.

History

The company was founded in 2012 in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

by Alex Neskin, Yaroslav Azhnyuk, and Andrey Klen. Typically for a

startup A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

, Petcube aimed to solve the problem the founders faced on their own: Neskin's dog Rocky suffered and misbehaved due to

separation anxiety Separation anxiety disorder (SAD) is an anxiety disorder in which an individual experiences excessive anxiety regarding separation from home and/or from people to whom the individual has a strong emotional attachment (e.g., a parent, caregiver ...

. Within two

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

campaigns the project raised $250,000 in 2013 (becoming the best funded pet product by that time) and $315,000 in 2016. In 2017, Petcube announced a treat partnership with Wellness and acquised a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

pet-focused startup Petbot. In the following years, Petcube raised over $14 million in

seed money Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor invests capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term ''seed'' su ...

and

Series A financing A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

from

Y Combinator Y Combinator (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator launched in March 2005. It has been used to launch more than 3,000 companies, including Airbnb, Coinbase, Cruise, DoorDash, Dropbox, Instacart, Quora, PagerDuty, Reddit, Str ...

Almaz Capital Almaz Capital is a global VC fund headquartered in Portola Valley, California, United States investing in early stage, capital efficient technology companies in high-growth sectors. Almaz Capital focuses on disruptive deep tech companies in b2b ...

, Aventures, and other investors.

Products

Petcube offers three devices: ''Petcube Camera'', ''Petcube Bites'' with camera and a treat dispenser, and ''Petcube Play'' which features a laser pointer to keep the pet entertained (distracted) while the owner is away. The devices can stream and record video, toss treats, allow users to communicate with a pet two-way, and connect to

Amazon Alexa Amazon Alexa, also known simply as Alexa, is a virtual assistant technology largely based on a Polish speech synthesiser named Ivona, bought by Amazon in 2013. It was first used in the Amazon Echo smart speaker and the Echo Dot, Echo Studio and ...

. Paid subscription enables cloud video storage, automated recording triggered by sound or motion, smart alerts (bark, meow, pet, and human notifications), and adds a web interface.

Charity

Petcube cooperates with shelters and helps to save pets and find them new homes. The company donates its products and organize events for pet activists. As a Ukrainian brand, Petcube joined

United24 United24 () is a Ukrainian government-run platform launched on 5 May 2022 to raise money for Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian War. History On 3 May 2022, the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal announced that a platform for fundraising in supp ...

charity project and donates proceeds from its pet cameras to the future rebuilding of

References

{{reflist Manufacturing companies established in 2013 Companies based in San Francisco Technology companies established in 2013 Cameras Kickstarter-funded products