{"id":44371,"date":"2023-10-20T15:35:30","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/airtree-ventures-barking-up-the-right-tree-with-pawshake-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:35:30","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:35:30","slug":"airtree-ventures-barking-up-the-right-tree-with-pawshake-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/airtree-ventures-barking-up-the-right-tree-with-pawshake-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"AirTree Ventures barking up the right tree with Pawshake – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
AirTree Ventures has made pet-sitting marketplace Pawshake the first startup to receive investment from its latest fund.<\/p>\n
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In July AirTree Ventures, a fund founded by former tech executives Daniel Petre and Craig Blair, raised $60 million to help \u201cplug the Series A crunch for Australian startups\u201d.<\/p>\n
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The fund had originally intended to invest between $2 million and $5 million, but has started slightly short of that mark. It has led investment in a $1.5 million pre-Series A funding round for Pawshake, although Blair won\u2019t specify the exact amount the fund committed to the raise.<\/p>\n
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Pawshake is a marketplace that helps pet owners find a trusted pet sitter in their community. The funds will be used to ramp up marketing, hire community managers, and strengthen Pawshake\u2019s engineering team in order to build upon the features it offers consumers. Blair says while it wasn\u2019t a Series A round, Pawshake has the maturity of a Series A company.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019ve got thousands of pet minders, over 1000 in Australia and many more internationally and it\u2019s growing revenue in double digit rates month on month,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s got serious traction in other markets and a high quality team with a product that\u2019s proven.\u201d<\/p>\n
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