PawPots – a Lebanon-based subscription service provider of fresh, gently-cooked meals for dogs and cats – is one of six winners of Purina’s UNLEASHED 2021 Accelerator Lab Program, shining among 300 applicants from 50 countries for a prize of around $55,000 to upscale its business. It will also receive mentorship and supervision from Purina’s Accelerator team.
The start-up, which is soon expanding into the United Arab Emirates, was recognised for driving some of the most innovative ideas in pet care along with five other applicants from around Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa: France’s Animoscope; the UK’s BioKind; Finland’s Pawesomer; the UK’s PuppyFat; and France’s Scorpet.
“PawPots’ guiding mission is to raise the safety and quality standards of animal food by using real, human-grade ingredients in our products, with meals tailor-made to each pet’s unique characteristics,” explained cofounder Jad Karam.
“The full range of applicants to the UNLEASHED Program this year truly showcases how much the pet care industry is accelerating, especially in the sphere of sustainability, technology and data-driven solutions,” said Sergej Pracević,Business Executive Officer, Nestlé Purina in the MENA region. “We are proud to be facilitating the work of these start-ups and look forward to seeing the impact these companies have on pet owners in the region and beyond.”
The UNLEASHED program works to select the most impactful start-ups from across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa which are actively engaged in creating and implementing innovative solutions, products and services for pets and the people who love them.
“We have created a product and service that we know pets and pet parents love. Through the mentorship, network, and connections of Purina, we can now take PawPots to the next level and accelerate towards our goal of conquering the UAE market,” added Karam. “The exposure that we will get through the UNLEASHED program will enable us to build a brand that is recognised as key to a healthy lifestyle for pets; and provide a solid foundation for our next round of fundraising.”
For more information, please visit https://www.unleashedbypurina.com/
For more information, please contact:
Layal Dalal, Nestlé Media Relations Manager, Middle East and North Africa
Email: [email protected]
About Nestlé Purina PetCare
Nestlé Purina PetCare promotes responsible pet care, community involvement and the positive bond between people and their pets. A premiere global manufacturer of pet products, Nestlé Purina PetCare is part of Swiss-based Nestlé S.A., a global leader in nutrition, health and wellness. For more information, visit the Purina Middle East and North Africa website: purina-arabia.com
About Purina Accelerator Lab
The Purina Accelerator Lab leverages the combination of the science and rigor of Purina’s research and development powerhouse and our commercial capabilities to help the growth of selected innovative start-ups that are integrating technology into pet care. Our aim is to provide advanced digitized solutions for nutrition, health and wellness services to pets and the people that love them. UNLEASHED is the first and only pet care specific program launched by the Purina Accelerator Lab designed to identify and support innovative start-ups utilizing technology to improve the lives of pets and their parents. This R&D powered accelerator offers start-ups the resources, capabilities and access to Purina’s exert pet, nutrition and category understanding, for the development of their businesses.
About Nestlé Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Nestlé’s heritage in the Middle East and North Africa goes back over 100 years with the sale of the first Infant Cereals in Egypt. Today, Nestlé operates 25 Food & Beverage factories across the 19 countries of the MENA region, and provides direct employment to more than 15,000 people who are all committed to Nestlé’s purpose of unlocking the power of food to enhance the quality of life for everyone, today and for generations to come. Nestlé MENA also provides indirect employment across the region to several thousand more.
The Nestlé portfolio in the region currently exceeds 60 innovative product brands in a wide range of categories: Dairy, Infant Nutrition, Coffee and Creamers, Confectionery, Bottled Water, Breakfast Cereals, Culinary products, Health Science, and Pet Care, among others. Nestlé NIDO, Nestlé CERELAC, Nestlé NAN, S-26, PROGRESS, NESCAFÉ, NESPRESSO, Bonjorno Café, Coffee-mate, KitKat, MAGGI, Nestlé FITNESS, Nestlé Grain d’Or, Nestlé Pure Life, OPTIFAST, and PURINA Friskies are just some of the brands available in the Middle East and North Africa.
To know more, you can visit:
Website: www.nestle-mena.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NestleMiddleeastNorthafrica
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nestleme
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NestléMENA
About the UNLEASHED 2021 winners:
PawPots
PawPots is a subscription service provider of fresh, gently-cooked meals for dogs and cats in the Middle East. The company’s guiding mission is to raise the safety and quality standards of animal food by using real, human-grade ingredients in their products. They’ve taken it upon themselves to better the health of our furry friends and bring them joy! Their meals are tailor-made to each pet’s unique characteristics.
Please visit the PawPots website for more information: pawpots.com
Animoscope
Animoscope is a data-driven company based in France building an all-digital veterinary service that provides pet parents with qualified advice and recommendations. In 2020 Animoscope's pet symptom checker VetoCheck® becomes the first approved in France by Veterinary authorities. VetoCheck® is a powerful algorithm that facilitates medical guidance from an application analyzing the symptoms observed by pet parents.
Please visit the Animoscope website for more information https://animoscope.com/
BioKind
BioKind is a UK start-up company addressing the global need for new sources of protein.
BioKind’s proprietary technology and unique, circular economy approach allow us to offer a truly sustainable product without compromising on price and quality.
Please visit the BioKind website for more information www.biokind.co.uk
Pawesomer
ITfox Oy is a Finnish software engineering company specialising in cloud services. The company’s flagship product is Pawesomer, an end-to-end pet health and lifestyle monitoring platform. Pawesomer is a comprehensive collection of tools for tracking your pet’s health, training and well-being. Pawesomer has exclusive digital rights to the Helsinki Pain Index for Dogs, a validated assessment tool for recognizing and tracking pain and treatment, and aims to make supporting and monitoring the health of our pets easy and reachable to any pet owner.
Please visit the Pawesomer website for more information: https://www.pawesomer.com
Pawesomer is also available in Finnish as TassuApu: https://www.tassuapu.fi
PuppyFat
PuppyFat is a software application that lets dog breeders log their records quickly, store their records securely, and share them seamlessly with vets and future pet owners. Having pioneered the world’s first mobile app for breeders, it now has a global user-base of several thousand.
PuppyFat recognises that happy, healthy, well-socialised pets don't happen by chance. They're the result of hard-working, responsible and ethical breeders. It’s therefore PuppyFat’s mission to empower those breeders to do their very best for pets and their new owners, by providing a platform that maintains a complete record of every animal, its history and its lineage; instantly available, whenever it's needed.
Please visit the PuppyFat website for more information: https://www.puppyfatapp.com/
Scorpet
Scorpet is a free mobile application dedicated to pet contests. Open to every pet parent, Scorpet grants impartiality and ensures fun and pride are included.
Please visit the Scorpet Facebook page for more information: https://www.facebook.com/AppScorpet/