Six Los Angeles area startups made venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz's ranking of the top 100 largest and fastest-growing consumer startups and private companies.
Topping the rankings were some of the usual suspects, including Airbnb, Doordash, Postmates, and Instacart. The VC firm labeled them as "some of the most impactful companies in the word economy."
<p>Among the firm's findings is that a small number of marketplace startups — the list's top four — accounted for 76% of consumer spending. And travel, food, and groceries accounted for the largest categories. </p><p>"Several emerging categories are intriguing, including local indie brands, celebrity shout-outs, streetwear, fitness memberships, and even car washes," according to the report. "The fastest growing marketplaces are growing really fast — 3x to 5x year-over-year."</p><p>Among the Los Angeles startups to make <a href="https://a16z.com/2020/02/18/marketplace-100/" target="_blank">the list</a>:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>GOAT, an online retailer for sneakers and other apparel, ranked No. 16 on the list. The Culver City-based company has some 12 million members and boasts an inventory of 800,000 vintage shoes.</li><li>Wag, the dog walking app considered to be the Uber for pets, ranked No. 24 on the list. The West Hollywood-based company announced last year it landed a $300 million investment from Softbank's Vision Fund.</li><li>Atom Tickets, which uses an app and its website to sell movie tickets and other services, ranked No. 25 on the list. The Santa Monica-based company has a roster of top Hollywood financial backers that includes Walt Disney Co., 20th Century Fox, and Lionsgate.</li><li>Tradesy, an online resale marketplace for buying and selling women's clothes, ranked No. 37 on the list. The Santa Monica-based company counts Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Beyers and Richard Branson as investors.</li><li>ResortPass, an online booking platform for access to hotels for the pool, spa, fitness, and amenities, came in at No. 71 on the list. The Santa Monica-based company has raised about $13 million to date, according to Pitchbook.</li><li><span></span>Bloomnation, an online floral marketplace, ranked No. 92 on the list. The Santa Monica-based company is considered an "Etsy-like" platform where 3,500 florists deliver to nearly 5,000 cities. </li></ul>
From Your Site Articles
- The dot.LA/ Pitchbook Top 50 LA Startups for 2020 Q2 - dot.LA ›
- GOAT's $100M Raise Fuels its Trendsetter Ambitions - dot.LA ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read more
Show less
Dogs and Cats - Living Together: The $75B Pet Economy and Why Los Angeles is Headquarters
Feb 04 2020
Snuggling on a chair, hovering over a laptop, stretched out on the floor, the long haired-haired, vaguely Calico-looking Koko with his own Instagram feed is a cat influencer in the making. He is also the face of Basepaws, a feline DNA testing service that's trying to tap into the $75 billion spent on pets in the U.S.
Gingi, a sweet feline that died too young, is the inspiration behind startup PrettyLitter, a mail-order cat litter that monitors feline health. And then there's dozens of dogs that inspired DogVacay, a pet sitting app that was sold last year to Rover. Founder Aaron Hirschhorn launched a new service last fall – stem cell storage banks for pets – motivated by his own experience using the regenerative treatment.
<p>According to Pitchbook, pet tech startups in Los Angeles County have pulled in more than $500 million in investments in the last six years. The largest and most well-known came from Softbank Vision Fund for <a href="https://wagwalking.com/" target="_blank">Wag Labs</a> — once the poster child for app-powered pet services. As Wag struggles to compete with venture capital-backed Rover, a slew of other pet tech companies are making their mark offering premium services.</p><p>"When I started DogVacay in 2012, I heard venture doesn't belong in pets. I got lots of 'No, the markets are too small,' said Hirschhorn, who has raised $11 million in funding led by Maveron for his latest venture, Gallant. "Now, the first thing that I hear is that people spend so much on their pets."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-proxy-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vbWVkaWEucmJsLm1zL2ltYWdlP3U9JTJGc3RhdGljJTJGbmV3X2Rlc2lnbiUyRmltYWdlcyUyRmhvbWVwYWdlJTJGYXBwLXNob3djYXNlLXBob25lcyUyRmFwcC1zaG93Y2FzZS1lbi11cyU0MDJ4LjhkMzljZTE0NDNkYy5wbmcmaG89aHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ3d3cucm92ZXIuY29tJnM9Mjg3Jmg9ZTFjMjg1YjBjZWJkMGZhZDA3M2NlYWQxMmYzNjJlMDkwZTIyOGJkZDMzYmNjMzg4Mjk4NjdlZjhhNTg3OGFhNiZzaXplPTk4MHgmYz0xMTc2ODAyMzI0IiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNTk3ODg4N30.zrEjCy9z83a4o2pvxR6UBPtjzTMHLz5QlOdSVMZMCWI/img.jpg" id="89044" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c3baf8233e8106d859b7ac69618f9ab2" />
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">DogVacay is a pet sitting app that was sold last year to Rover.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">
<a href="https://www.rover.com/static/new_design/images/homepage/app-showcase-phones/app-showcase-en-us@2x.8d39ce1443dc.png" target="_blank">www.rover.com</a>
</small>
</p><p><a href="https://www.gallant.com/" target="_blank">Gallant</a>, which launched in the fall, charges a $395 processing fee and $95 a year to store stem cells removed by a veterinarian when pets are spayed or neutered. It aims to make canine life healthier and longer. The company, which has a Federal Drug Administration compliant lab in La Jolla, appeals to veterinarians who can charge a fee for their service and have the promise of pets returning for treatment as they age.<br/></p><h2>The Pet Economy</h2><p>Americans love their four-legged friends. More than half of U.S. households own a pet and while ownership rates haven't grown dramatically over the last decade, the amount people willing to spend on their animals has. The American Pet Products Association estimates last year spending topped $75 billion from $45 billion a decade earlier. And the figure is quadruple what it was in 1994.</p><p>"We see a ton of interest in the space," said Mike Jones, head of the Santa Monica incubator and investment firm Science Inc. His firm, which invested in DogVacay and Rover, recently backed <a href="https://www.dogdrop.co/" target="_blank">DogDrop</a>, a flexible canine day care. Jones said they made the calculation that with millennials choosing to have children later in life, animals would play a bigger role. "There's a lot of disposable income that people can spend on pets," he said. "The price point they are willing to spend is way higher."</p><p>There's companies like <a href="https://www.modernanimal.com/" target="_blank">Modern Animal</a>, a Playa Vista-based startup that wants to revamp veterinary clinics for the digital age with telemedicine and other services. It raised $13.5 million in seed funding last fall.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjY1Nzk4OS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNTA3NDI3N30.JBEHZXq1XcS02qhhgDg4mosJJSpT0QlC9uInMpOSOXk/img.png?width=980" id="e4c33" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ecccbb00dabdee04d541c7aa2c69322e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption..."><a href="https://www.gallant.com/" target="_blank">Gallant</a> stores stem cells removed by a veterinarian when pets are spayed or neutered to make canine life healthier and longer..</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Gallant.com</small></p><p><a href="https://scratchpay.com/" target="_blank">Scratchpay</a>, a Pasadena-based company that offers financing for veterinary care, scored $65 million in a Series B round in October.<br/></p><p>And then there's companies more akin to Gallant like <a href="https://prettylittercats.com/" target="_blank">PrettyLitter</a>, a mail-order litter that monitors for health by turning colors when urine shows unusual signs of alkalinity and other factors. </p><p>Their growth is part of a larger trend powered by Americans' relationship with their pets, mostly dogs. This humanization, as those in the pet industry like to call it, has driven a push in luxury products and services.</p><p>"More and more people are thinking of their pets as parts of their family, as human beings," said Hal Herzog, a professor of psychology at Western Carolina University who has spent decades looking at the relationship between human and animals. </p><p>"We spend twice as much on pets per capita as we did 30 years ago."</p><p>Where's the money going? On the extravagant side, there's pets spas, canine herbal medicine, Louis Vuitton pet carriers, and diet delivery services. And there's also a booming trend of influencer canines who have their own agents, like Instagram star JiffPom (and his 9.8 million followers). </p><p>Pet owners are willing to go to extremes to spoil their dogs and cats -- even wading into unregulated pet technology to keep them healthy.</p><h2>Unregulated Pet Technology</h2><p>Founded in 2016 by Anna Skaya, Basepaws promises to tell feline owners with a sample of saliva from their cheek, "the secrets to keeping their health in tip-top shape." The El Segundo-based company presents itself as a health service but operates in a non-regulated zone, along with several other pet companies coming up including PrettyLitter and Gallant.</p><p>Skaya, who previously ran Groupon in Russia, originally wanted to name her company 23andMeow. Her proprietary genetic testing provides cat owners with information about their breeds along with hereditary disease. For humans those service are approved by the Federal Drug Administration. Still they aren't intended for diagnostic purposes and there are various levels of evidence to support many of their claims.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjY1Nzk4Ny9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3MzYxNTg2N30.dt1lPPFHdu0G2YhUEJMbnWlSrbHeFet6cz1xOif-Hfs/img.png?width=980" id="c6cfb" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a464b45e0639e84091d67467b04731c6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption..."><a href="https://prettylittercats.com/" target="_blank">PrettyLitter</a> is a mail-order litter that monitors for health by turning colors when urine shows unusual signs of alkalinity and other factors.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">PrettyLitter.com</small></p><p>And while Skaya and PrettyLitter founder Daniel Rotman say that their services are not diagnostic — merely a tool — they want pet owners looking to improve their animals health to turn to them.<br/></p><p>"When you do a DNA test it opens up this world about breeds and diseases," she said. "I always say the cats can't talk but their DNA can." Last year, she clinched $250,000 on Shark Tank and is looking to close a $2.5 million seed round next month.</p><p>The service runs $129 and she sees her company, growing to include nutrition products. Hirschhorn, who invested in Basepaws, sees it working for the very same reasons that he believes his own company will take off. "There's this macro trend toward health rather than fighting diseases," Hirschhorn said, adding that it's the same reason humans are taking greater care of themselves.</p><p>Skaya has loftier goals: "If we know what diseases they have, we can make sure they are not breeding. We are eradicating genetic diseases."</p>
From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
Read more
Show less