For the cause of paws

HYDERABAD: A parent to three dogs, Teddy, Cutie and Coffee, Laxmikanth Pudu often had trouble finding quality food and services for his pets. After seven years, he grew tired of going to Google or various other e-commerce websites for the best care and services for his little ones. “And because barely any of these services can prove authenticity, I struggled with quality, and I began to realise it wasn’t a concern of just me but that of every pet parent. That’s when I decided to create a one-stop-shop for all pet needs,” he says.

Thus was born Hyderabad’s first and only pet platform providing a plethora of services including health, grooming, food, adoption, shopping, donation, content creation/sharing, training and breed-matching, etc. Called PetFolk, the application founded by the Hyderabad-based pet parent last month connects pet parents with each other as well as pet service providers in order to fulfil their pets’ needs.

Laxmikanth says that several challenges of being a pet parent inspired him to create PetFolk. “The inability to tackle unexpected pet medical emergencies, limited access to pet healthcare services, inadequate options for pet companionship, fragmented information on pet care, poor grooming and training services, limited donations portals for necessitous animal homes and the absence of pet service aggregators have all made life hard for a pet parent,” he shares. According to Laxmikanth, the tremendous amount of love humans have for their pets can lead to worries about their pet parenting skills, as they are striving to provide the utmost care for their furry companions. He has firsthand witnessed the gaps in the well-being of his pets, encouraging him to open such a platform. 

A well-travelled entrepreneur with decades of expertise in assisting organisations and companies of various domains in achieving their goals, the out-of-the-box thinker decided to bring his best to the table. “Through PetFolk I hope to build an all-inclusive network to integrate pet nursing, care, social networking, and other services to make pet parenting satiating. Today, the app functions as a social media platform for pet parents to share adorable pictures and videos with the world. They can also find the perfect match for their pet based on their locations, breeds and various other filters,” he tells CE.

It also serves as an e-commerce platform for pet food and accessories, and tracks and notifies pet parents about pet-friendly places that have events, shows, parks, restaurants blogs and viral video content too. “It’s like a comprehensive hub in liaison with local pet shops, clinics, event managers and other pet services having an extensive network with influencers,” he concludes.