Pet Sitting Startup Rover Raises $65M

Pets can make a house feel like a home.

While the addition of a small puppy can be one of the best things for a family, it can also be one of the most expensive.

As lucrative as the dog boarding business is, the American Pet Products Association says pet spending has grown every year since 1994, reaching $67 billion, and one company looking to make the process even easier just raised a significant amount of venture capital (VC) funding.

Seattle-based pet sitting startup Rover has announced news of a $65 million round of venture capital funding, led by Spark Capital with additional investors including Menlo Ventures, Foundry Group and Technology Crossover Ventures.

The startup found a way to make the pet sitting and dog-walking business more streamlined in a dating website-style service. Pet owners and pet sitters or walkers are matched up together based on their respective profiles, and Rover takes a 22 percent cut of each transaction.

With this VC funding, Rover can move forward with its efforts to become the go-to dog care service and hopefully eventually file for its IPO. It also plans to expand its offerings to include pet health and grooming.