Wag

What Wag does

Wag! (legal entity Wag Labs, Inc., publicly traded as Wag! Group Co. on NASDAQ under ticker PET) operates a two-sided mobile marketplace connecting pet parents with independent pet caregivers for on-demand dog walking, drop-in visits, pet sitting, overnight boarding, and daycare services. The platform is delivered via native iOS and Android applications and a web booking interface, with a registered user base of approximately 5 million pet parents and a supply side of 500,000+ verified caregivers operating across 5,300+ cities in all 50 US states. Functional capabilities include real-time GPS walk tracking, in-app messaging, photo and video updates during care sessions, and the Wag! Guarantee, which provides up to $25,000 in coverage for veterinary and property incidents.

The company monetizes primarily through a 40% commission fee on each completed booking, deducted from caregiver earnings—a materially higher take rate than competitor Rover's approximately 20%. Recent product extensions include Wag! Wellness (subscription wellness and pet insurance), Vet Chat (veterinary telehealth), and Wag! Premium (subscription tier with enhanced features). Beyond the core marketplace, Wag! has expanded vertically through acquisitions: Dog Food Advisor ($9M, January 2023) added a dog food marketplace and recommendation engine, WoofWoofTV (February 2024) added a pet-focused social media brand for content and audience, and Furmacy (August 2022) added veterinary telehealth infrastructure. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with 101–250 employees, and is publicly listed following a $10 million secondary offering in July 2024 at $1.35 per share.

Wag!'s customer base is purely consumer-facing, with no enterprise contracts or B2B channels identified. Go-to-market is product-led and self-serve, relying on app store distribution, SEO-driven content marketing, and organic social media presence. The company's scale—16 million+ completed services and a 4.8/5 rating across 42,000 reviews—demonstrates operating traction, but financial disclosures show persistent unprofitable unit economics, and the company has used capital markets (notably a $300M SoftBank-led Series D in 2018 and the 2024 secondary) to fund expansion and debt service rather than achieve standalone profitability.

Name

Wag

Legal name

Wag Labs, Inc.

Website

https://wagwalking.com

Company type

Public

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Wag! is a publicly traded US mobile marketplace (NASDAQ: PET) connecting 5M+ pet parents with 500K+ independent caregivers for dog walking, sitting, boarding, and daycare services across all 50 states, monetizing via a 40% booking commission.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Pet Care Marketplace

NAICS

Pet Care (except Veterinary) Services (81291)

akta.pro primary industry

Pet Care & Pet Services Platforms (Sitting, Walking, Grooming) (BPAMAHAI)

Keywords

• Pet care marketplace
• Dog walking services
• Pet sitting platform
• On-demand pet care
• Caregiver matching platform

Headquarters

HQ city

Mountain View

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Platform Commission on Bookings: Platform charges a 40% commission fee on each service booking completed through the Wag! platform, deducted from caregiver earnings. Pet parents pay the full service rate while Wag! retains its platform fee.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Wag! operates a mobile marketplace platform connecting pet parents with independent, background-checked pet caregivers for on-demand dog walking, drop-in visits, pet sitting, overnight boarding, and daycare services across 5,300+ cities in all 50 U.S. states. The platform retains approximately a 40% commission on each booking completed by caregivers, while pet parents pay the full service rate set by caregivers.

Product overview

Wag! operates a pet care services marketplace as a unified platform connecting pet parents with caregivers. The core offering consists of a mobile app enabling booking of dog walking, drop-in visits, sitting, boarding, and daycare services, complemented by Vet Chat telehealth consultations. The product portfolio includes subscription offerings (Wag! Premium, Wag! Wellness with pet insurance), a trust-and-safety feature (Wag! Guarantee providing up to $25,000 coverage), and educational content (Pet Care Guides, Dog Training Guides). Recent acquisitions include Dog Food Advisor (dog food marketplace, 2023) and WoofWoofTV (pet social media brand, 2024), expanding into pet food retail and media content respectively.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Dog Food Advisor: An online marketplace for dog food acquired by Wag! to expand into pet food and treats market.
• WoofWoofTV

Products and services

• Wag! App Mobile application (iOS/Android) and web platform enabling pet parents to discover, book, and manage dog walking, drop-in, sitting, boarding, and daycare services with verified caregivers, with features including GPS walk tracking, real-time photo and video updates, in-app messaging, and integrated payments.
• Dog Walking On-demand and scheduled dog walking services provided by screened, background-checked independent caregivers booked through the Wag! platform across the United States.
• Drop-In Visits Short caregiver visits to a pet owner's home to provide food, water, medication, and playtime during the day.
• Pet Sitting Pet sitting service where independent caregivers watch pets in the pet owner's home during the day or overnight.
• Boarding Overnight pet care provided at the caregiver's home for pets whose owners are traveling.
• Daycare Daytime pet care provided at the caregiver's location for pet owners needing supervision for their pets during working hours.

Quantifiable outcome

• 500K+ verified pet caregivers available nationwide
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability1 record

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• WoofWoofTVminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 February 2024Wag! completed acquisition of social media brand WoofWoofTV in February 2024, marking its entry into the media space. The acquisition provides Wag! access to a large pet-loving audience and enhances its content creation capabilities.
• Dog Food AdvisorcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 January 2023Wag! completed acquisition of Dog Food Advisor for $9 million in Q1 2023. Dog Food Advisor is a dog food marketplace. The acquisition aims to broaden Wag!'s service offerings in pet care and pet insurance, leveraging Dog Food Advisor's digital presence and Wag!'s pet care data.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Rover: Direct marketplace competitor connecting pet owners with dog walkers, sitters, and boarders globally. Operates the same core dog walking/sitting/boarding marketplace model with a 20% commission rate vs Wag!'s 40%, and is the dominant player with ~2M+ users internationally versus Wag!'s ~671K.
• TrustedHousesitters: Online community and marketplace matching pet owners with house sitters who provide in-home pet care as part of house-sitting arrangements. Direct competitor to Wag!'s pet sitting and drop-in visit offerings with a subscription-based rather than per-booking model.
• PetBacker: Global pet services marketplace offering pet sitting, dog walking, boarding, and grooming across multiple countries. Competes with Wag! in the same pet care services category with a similar gig-economy provider model, though focused more on Asia-Pacific markets.
• Fetch! Pet Care: US franchise-based pet care provider offering dog walking, pet sitting, and pet taxi services. Direct competitor to Wag! with a more localized, franchise-driven model rather than a gig marketplace, competing primarily for offline pet parents and corporate accounts.

Broad incumbents

• BarkBox: Subscription-based pet product company (owned by BARK Inc.) offering monthly boxes, toys, and food. While not a direct service marketplace competitor, it competes for share-of-wallet from pet parents and overlaps in the digital pet consumer audience Wag! targets through WoofWoofTV and Dog Food Advisor.
• Chewy: Leading online pet food and supplies retailer. Broad incumbent in pet commerce; its scale in pet food and pharmacy competes directly with the Dog Food Advisor acquisition's addressable market.
• Petco: Large specialty pet retailer offering grooming, training, vet care, and in-store services. Broad incumbent competing for the same pet parent wallet share through bundled services, training, and in-store pet care that overlaps with Wag!'s daycare and walking offerings.

Emerging players

• Vetster: Online marketplace for veterinary telehealth appointments connecting pet owners with licensed veterinarians. Emerging player in pet telehealth that overlaps with Wag!'s Vet Chat offering, and competes for the same vet-related monetization opportunity.
• Holistapet: Direct-to-consumer pet wellness brand offering CBD products and supplements. Adjacent player in the pet wellness category that intersects with Wag! Wellness and pet insurance offerings, and competes for the natural/wellness-conscious segment of Wag!'s user base.
• Pawp: Digital pet health platform offering 24/7 veterinary telehealth and an emergency fund product. Emerging player that directly competes with Wag!'s Vet Chat and Wag! Wellness insurance bundle, pursuing a similar strategy of monetizing pet parents beyond a single service.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/wagwalking
• Facebookfacebook.com/wagwalking
• Instagraminstagram.com/wag
• TikToktiktok.com/@wag

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds9 records

Investors18 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A3 records

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Wag