With pet parents spending $70 billion a year on pets, one startup is changing the wave on what was more recently confined to humans: a healthy diet. Ollie,a direct-to-consumer startup that delivers custom-formulated dog meals to your door, landed $12.6 million in Series A funding attracting celebrities like Serena Williams to invest in dog health. With a $4.4 million seed round, this brings the company’s total funding to roughly $17 million.
Co-founders Alex Douzet, Gabby Slome, and Randy Jimenez launched the subscription dog food company in 2016 to unveil a pet food industry rooted in fast food. “Dead, dying, or diseased animals get mushed up into this meat slurpee,” said Ollie’s co-founder Gabby Slome when describing the jaw-dropping truths of the commercial pet food making process. Obesity, diabetes, and cancers are just some of the health conditions surrounding filler, chemical, and preservative packed dry dog food, also known as kibble.
Would you want eat fast food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, everyday for your entire life? Probably not. Processed foods are known have negative health effects on humans, and they behave in the same way for dogs. Over half of dogs in america are overweight and canine diabetes rates have almost doubled in the past decade.
This sad state of doggy affairs is largely because the dog food industry is widely unregulated. Even with the AAFCO safeguards identifying potentially dangerous chemicals and fillers, commercial dog foods continue to contain harmful ingredients and byproducts, leading to over 40 dog food recalls every year.
Companies like Ollie are emerging as the alternatives to traditional dog food. Unlike kibble, Ollie isn’t a one-meal-fits-all food. Free of any artificial flavors, growth hormones, antibiotics, fillers, synthetic colors, and preservatives, Ollie’s meal plans are custom made for dog’s breed, weight, and activity to promote healthy weight and in turn, lead to a healthier life.
