What Finding Rover does

Finding Rover, founded in 2012 and headquartered in Byron, United States, is a pet reunification platform that has been absorbed into Petco Love and now operates as 'Petco Love Lost.' The platform provides a free, web-based service that enables pet owners to report lost pets and community members to report found pets, drawing on a centralized database of over 200,000 lost and found pet listings searchable across all 50 U.S. states. Its core technology is an AI-powered photo-matching algorithm that performs facial recognition on pet photos to automatically identify potential matches between lost and found reports, reducing the manual search burden on users and enabling cross-state reunions, including documented cases spanning 365 miles.

The business model is donation-based and sponsorship-funded rather than commercially monetized. The service is entirely free to end users, with voluntary donations (a $25 suggested gift) solicited on the platform to support operations. As a flagship initiative of Petco Love, the nonprofit foundation of Petco Animal Supplies, Inc., the platform receives operational and financial backing from Petco's national retail infrastructure, which also provides brand credibility and distribution reach. The platform has earned Charity Navigator 4-star and Candid Platinum Transparency designations, reflecting its nonprofit governance posture. The company was founded by John Polimeno and has historically operated with a small team (11-50 employees), with only one disclosed funding round of approximately $2.04 million in March 2014.

Name

Finding Rover

Legal name

Petco Animal Supplies, Inc.

Website

https://findingrover.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Finding Rover, now operating as Petco Love Lost, is a free AI-powered pet reunification platform serving U.S. pet owners with a 200,000+ listing database and photo-matching technology, funded by donations and backed by Petco Love.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Pet Recovery Platform

NAICS

Pet Care (except Veterinary) Services (81291)

akta.pro primary industry

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

akta.pro secondary industry

Remote Monitoring & Connected Pet Care (Wearables, IoT, Chronic Care Programs) (HLAMAGAL)

Keywords

• Lost pet recovery
• Pet reunification platform
• Pet facial recognition
• Lost and found pets
• Pet recovery database

Headquarters

HQ city

Byron

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Donations: Petco Love Lost is a free service funded by donations. The site explicitly requests donations ($25 helps a pet return home) to support operations.
2. Petco Partnership: As a Petco Love initiative, the platform is supported by Petco Animal Supplies Inc., providing operational and financial backing.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Petco Love Lost (originally Finding Rover) operates a free, web-based lost-and-found pet database and reunification platform containing 200,000+ pet listings. Users register and upload photos of lost pets, while finders upload photos of found pets; the platform's AI-powered photo-matching algorithm automatically compares images to flag potential matches. Community members can also directly message pet parents to coordinate returns, with the service funded by voluntary donations and Petco Love's nonprofit backing.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Petco Love Lost (Finding Rover) Free, web-based lost-and-found pet database and reunification platform with 200K+ listings, AI-powered photo-matching technology for pets, direct messaging between finders and pet parents, and state-by-state search across all 50 U.S. states. Targeted at individual pet owners and community members who find lost pets.

Quantifiable outcome

• Pets reunited after being lost for extended periods including multi-month separations
• +2 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

Feature1 record

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Petco LoveflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerPetco Love Lost is operated as a flagship initiative of Petco Love, the nonprofit foundation of Petco Animal Supplies Inc. Petco Love provides operational funding, brand support, and integration with Petco's national retail presence.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Emerging players

• Nextdoor: Nextdoor is a hyperlocal social network where lost-pet posts circulate widely within neighborhoods. It is an indirect but meaningful competitor for the same lost-pet awareness use case, leveraging an existing social graph rather than a dedicated database.
• Adopt-a-Pet: Adopt-a-Pet is a nonprofit pet adoption network that connects to shelters and rescues. It serves a partially overlapping audience of pet owners, with potential to expand into lost-and-found functionality that would compete with Finding Rover.

Direct peers

• Tabby Tracker: Tabby Tracker is a long-standing lost-pet registry and community platform with breed and color filtering. It competes in the same lost-and-found category as Finding Rover with overlapping SMB/individual pet owner use cases.
• HomeAgain: HomeAgain is a microchip and pet recovery service that helps reunite lost pets using ID numbers and a recovery network. It addresses the same lost-pet problem through a different mechanism and a partially overlapping pet owner target.
• PawBoost: PawBoost is a direct competitor running a similar lost-and-found pet alert network with mobile apps, local alerts, and shelter integrations. It targets the same pet owner need with a comparable product-led, free-to-user model.
• AKC Reunite: AKC Reunite is the American Kennel Club's microchipping and lost-pet recovery service. It is comparable through its dedicated lost-pet recovery mission and shelter partnerships, though it leans on microchip IDs rather than photo matching.

Broad incumbents

• Petfinder: Petfinder is the largest pet adoption platform in North America. It overlaps with Finding Rover through shared shelter/rescue integrations and a common audience of engaged pet owners, but its core use case is adoption rather than recovery.
• Rover: Rover is the largest pet care services marketplace in North America, sitting, walking, and boarding. While its primary category is gig pet services, it shares the broader digital pet-care platform space and an overlapping pet owner customer base.
• Petco: Petco is the parent retail ecosystem behind Petco Love Lost, providing distribution, brand, and operational support. It is the strategic anchor and largest stakeholder in Finding Rover's operating environment.
• Petco Love: Petco Love is the nonprofit parent and operator of Petco Love Lost, running a broader portfolio of pet welfare programs (adoption, care, grants). It defines the strategic and funding context in which Finding Rover operates.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/FindingRover
• Facebookfacebook.com/FindingRover
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/finding-rover

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors

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

M&A

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about Finding Rover