Member Article

Animal Magic for Manchester VC firm with pet food market investment

A multimillion-pound fund recently set up by three Manchester-based entrepreneurs has invested in a pet sector start-up.

Fearless Adventures has backed Pets Purest in Sale with a six-figure capital investment as well as business support for ecommerce, digital marketing and talent sourcing, and will take a minority stake to support growth.

Pets Purest has more than 500,000 customers and has achieved a revenue of £6m in 2021.

Fearless Adventures was launched in October by David Newns, Charlie Yates and Social Chain co-founder Dominic McGregor.

Its previous investments include an ethical swimwear brand established by Love Island star Montana Brown.

Mr Newns said: “As a dog owner, I love the products but as an investor, my partners and I gel with the founders and admire the brilliant business they’ve built through the Amazon channel.

“They’re making healthy profits and have the drive and ambition to lead the business forward in a highly attractive sector.”

The deal will enable both companies to take a bite out of the £2.9bn UK pet food market, which is expected to grow 4.9% through 2026. Direct to consumer (“D2C”) specialist Fearless Adventures will use its best in class digital marketing services and talent recruitment team to build a D2C ecommerce platform for Pets Purest to scale beyond its existing Amazon channel.

Oli Bristowe, founder, Pets Purest, said: “We’re on a mission to make pets happy, and want to become the most trusted natural pet care brand on the planet. We’re profitable and growing, so finding a partner wasn’t about finding money, it was an opportunity to team up with people to enjoy our growth journey with.” The Rising Trend of Pet Humanisation

4.3.2m Brits have acquired a pet since lockdown, and there are now 34 million pets in the UK. The pets foods segment is expected to grow to more than £3bn by 2026. The ‘pet humanisation’ is helping to drive this growth. The commercialisation of human-like goods and services for animals, such as pet supplements offered by Pets Purest is a major driver behind the growth of this market. And this trend is growing the already significant acquisition appetite from private equity firms, making companies like Pets Purest increasingly attractive to investors like Fearless Adventures.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by scot devine .