At 14%, India's pet industry is growing rapidly. The pet market, pegged at ₹1300 crore, is full of opportunities. And when youngsters such as Nilabh Nilottpal spot those, it gives birth to ventures start-ups like Zoey.
From pet products to grooming services, vets at home to mating, the Bengaluru based app available on Android and iOS offers a range of services to pet parents. An engineering graduate from the R.V.College of Engineering, Nilabh lost his pet, a St. Bernard in an accident. The app is named after her.
“She died in my hands as my vet wasn’t available that day. I didn’t know of any other vet in the area. Her death could have been avoided if I had the right kind of information. The incident set me thinking,” says Nilabh who with his friend, Vineet Aggarwal started Zoey PetCare Pvt Ltd last year.
The app lists vets, pet stores that are closest to a pet parent, and home grooming services. “The idea is that you don’t have to step out stressing out yourself and your pet looking for these services. Taking your pet to a groomer involves taking them to the spa, waiting your turn, waiting for an appointment and bring them back. Sometimes, your dogs return with ticks. But we come to you. All you need to give us is space, water and towel.”
Since, the grooming service requires visiting homes, Nilabh says, only reliable people are hired for the job. Currently, they have three groomers on board. For far off places, the service is outsourced. After testing the waters for a year, Zoey is now ready to go all out with many added services.
The first is house calls by vets. Jayanagar-based Zoey has two full-time vets available through the day. “Connect with us on the app, and the vet will reach your place. Before he reaches, he will speak to the pet parent about the issue so that he can go prepared. Before we can take on complex cases, we are concentrating on vaccination. It is important and visiting vets is always a time-consuming affair. Transportation is also a hassle. If you don't have a car and the autowallah refuses, then you are stuck without options. Then there is a long waiting time at the clinic. With Zoey, customers get a vaccination chart based on age and breed. At the time of joining, pet parent will have to fill in all the details.”
Pet products are also positioned differently here. Zoey has subscription boxes — budget and royal. The boxes combine essentials such as dry food, wet food, chew toys, snacks, and paw butter.
Another interesting feature is Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge mating services. Finding partners for your pets for mating is not an easy task and most parents depend on pet stores for the information. “”You are not quite sure of it. On this app, we will connect pet parents. And believe me, mating is important for dogs. The vets recommend it too. So,there are two icons, off-heat and on-heat. If you click on on-heat, it will show you other pet parents whose dogs are on heat. I think, we urgently need to regularise pet market so that we can do away with breeders who inflict cruelty on dogs. It is ironical that on the one hand, pet food industry is growing at such a fast rate but pet market per se isn’t growing,” he says.
“This is because of no documentation and illegal, unaccepable breeding. I once found a beautiful German Shepherd on the streets. I took her to the doctor who diagnosed her with severe stomach inflammation. The doctor said the dog was used for breeding and after she became old, she was abandoned. She died because of the disease.”
An animal lover, Nilabh also conducts awareness campaigns at Cubbon Park. On the app, he plans to start a pet adoption platform. Forums for pet parents to discuss pet-related issues, get a pet, dog walking services are also being offered by the app.