Dogs have masters, cats have staff, they say. Whether the four-legged friends themselves attach importance to this verbal job differentiation has not been proven. What is clear, however, is that both have very specific needs that have to be met even when their owners are away.

With the growing pet population worldwide and the expansion of the digital platform economy, a large market for the on-site care of dogs and cats has emerged in recent years. New online platforms have sprung up like mushrooms to bring pet owners together with pet sitters who, depending on their wishes, either just come round to feed or walk their pets, or spend whole nights and weeks, sometimes even months, within the four walls of the absent owner.

The providers make money from fees that are charged either per booking, or via a subscription. An „Airbnb for pets“ – this is how companies such as Rover from the USA and Cat in a Flat from the UK describe it. The data service provider Tracxn currently counts 188 such marketplaces. The two best-funded companies, Rover and Wag, are both based in the USA.

It is a billion-dollar industry that is growing. Market researchers such as Global Markets Insights and Straits Research forecast a global market volume of more than 6 billion dollars by 2032, more than twice as much as last year. According to the experts, this is not only due to the steady increase in the pet population (it is estimated that every second household worldwide now has a pet), but also to the increased „humanisation“ of animal companions, which – boosted by rising disposable incomes – is accompanied by ever higher expenditure and more diverse care options.

The growth and synergy potential in the placement of pet owners and pet sitters has not escaped the attention of the big financial investors. Blackstone from the USA, the world's largest alternative asset manager, acquired Rover this year, putting 2.3 billion dollars on the table. Founded in 2011 by Aaron Easterly, Greg Gottesman and Philip Kimmey, the Seattle-based pet-sitting marketplace went public ten years after its launch via a Spac deal.

Its competitor Wag, which was initially financed by partners including Softbank and General Catalyst, followed onto the trading floor a year later via a Spac, but suffered a price slump shortly afterwards, from which the penny stock has still not recovered.

Blackstone's offer, on the other hand, gave Rover's share price a considerable boost – at 11 dollars per share, it was 30% higher than the last closing price before the announcement. In the course of the transaction, Rover was ultimately delisted from the stock exchange.

Today, Rover describes itself as the world's largest online platform for pet care. The company was founded after startup investor Greg Gottesman's golden retriever caught dog flu at a kennel. After a coronavirus-induced slump in sales when many pet owners had to cancel their holiday plans, the company's revenues had grown steadily in recent years and in 2021, the year of its IPO, it posted positive adjusted EBITDA for the first time. „Our market position is better than ever before,“ said Easterly in an interview with the US tech portal GeekWire at the end of February. The industry has long lagged behind in the introduction of technologies, and a large part of it is still highly fragmented.

Rover seems to want to change this. After acquiring its US rival DogVacay in 2017, which was only a year younger, the company entered the European market a year later with the purchase of London-based DogBuddy. And now the Americans have the next deal in the bag: Cat in a Flat, a cat sitting agency founded in London in 2014, is also to become part of Rover. At the end of October, the two companies announced the transaction, which is „another exciting milestone in Rover's European expansion“, as Rover COO and President Brent Turner said. „We believe there is a great opportunity for us to better meet the needs of cat parents around the world and look forward to supporting Cat In A Flat on its journey.“

For cat and dog owners, the greatest need is probably the safety of their four-legged friends – in addition to the lowest possible fees, and a high level of user-friendliness of the marketplaces. Numerous negative headlines about pets that have disappeared, died, or been mistreated, while their owners were away, and while being cared for by online pet sitters, show that this issue should not be neglected by providers. Rover has also been sued several times in this context. To increase the safety of the pets being cared for, the company offers, among other things, background checks on the pet sitters, a verified rating system, a reimbursement programme for any veterinary costs incurred, or property damage, and 24-hour support.