Progressive Grocer Staff
Retailers looking for the next big thing in the pet care category have a friend in St. Louis-based Nestlé Purina PetCare. The Purina 9 Square Ventures group, founded in 2014, and startup investor Active Capital recently chose five winners from more than 100 companies to receive the Pet Care Innovation Prize powered by Purina.
The winners receive a $10,000 prize, mentorship from the Purina Pet Care Innovation team, and the opportunity to participate in a final pitch competition in March, with the grand-prize winner pocketing another $10,000. This year’s recipients of the Purina Pet Care Innovation prize are:
ClueJay: The
online diagnostic platform allows pet parents to access lab tests on demand from the comfort and safety of home. ClueJay lets dog and cat owners collect and mail fecal samples for parasite screening, without the hassle and stress of vet visits.
Purina Announces 2021 Pet Care Innovation Prize Winners
Five pet care startups awarded a total of $50,000 prize money and support from Purina
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ST. LOUIS, Jan. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ Five pet care startups from across the U.S. have been selected as the 2021 winners of the fifth annual Pet Care Innovation Prize powered by Purina. From pet diagnostic health tools and sous-vide pet food to environmentally friendly products for pets and their owners, the 2021 class of Pet Care Innovation Prize winners represents what s new and what s next in the $99 billion pet care industry.
The 2021 Pet Care Innovation Prize Winners are:
Proving voicemail doesn’t have to be wack, the Slack-backed startup Yac raises $7.5 million
Yac, the Orlando, Florida-based startup that’s digitizing voice messages for remote offices, has raised $7.5 million in a new round of funding.
The company’s service has garnered enough attention to pick up a pretty sizable new round from investors led by GGV Capital and a return investment from the Slack Fund.
Apparently, reinventing voicemail is a multi-million-dollar endeavor.
“The future of meetings will be asynchronous, in your ears and hands-free,” says Pat Matthews, the chief executive and founder of Active Capital, when the company announced its seed round nearly a year ago.
ReturnSafe, an Austin startup that builds software aimed at helping businesses reopen amid the pandemic, has raised $3.25 million to expand its offerings.
The funding round was led by venture capital firms Fifty Years and Active Capital, and also included investment from Necessary Ventures.
The comp
ReturnSafe, an Austin startup that builds software aimed at helping businesses reopen amid the pandemic, has raised $3.25 million to expand its offerings.
The funding round was led by venture capital firms Fifty Years and Active Capital, and also included investment from Necessary Ventures.
The company, which was established to address COVID-19 business disruptions, makes a platform to help employers manage workplace safety protocol related to the pandemic, such as contact tracing, symptom screening and vaccine management. ReturnSafe, created this year, is made up of doctors, medical professionals, technology leaders and public health experts, the company said.
In a written statement, Tarun Nimmagadda, founder and chief executive, said it was started for two main reasons to keep employees safe and to minimize workplace disruption due to disease outbreaks.