Pet startups in Korea are rising because it is estimated that South Koreans spent $4 billion on their pets in 2022. The Korea Rural Economic Institute feels this number will increase to $5 billion by 2027. The main reason for this is that Koreans love their pets! Walking down the streets of Seoul, you will see dogs in some of the cutest outfits. Moreover, there is a pet hospital or pet store near most stations in Korea. Therefore, there has been substantial growth in the sales of pet food, accessories, and supplies production in Korea. There are even veterinary startups in Korea getting massive funding. However, this article will not focus on pet products or eCommerce sites selling these products. Instead, we will look into some innovative services provided by these pet startups in Korea that have the potential to expand globally. 

Koreans Choosing Pets over Children 

The main factor in the booming pet industry in South Korea is that women have fewer and fewer children. Many factors play into this, but the two main factors have to do with the high cost of education and the long working hours. More and more couples have fewer and fewer children. However, the number of households owning pets has increased. The Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency data showed that over 30% of Korean households live with pets. Therefore, the Korean market alone is strong enough to support pet-focused businesses. COEX, one of Korea’s biggest exhibition centers, typically holds an annual Pet Fair. 

As the pet startup scene is vast. We will focus on pet startup services as we have articles on veterinary startups and pet products in a separate article.

Here are the Best Pet Startups in Korea for 2023

Pireco

Pireco is a digital authentication startup that developed a fast and easy pet registration service using facial recognition technology. They focus mainly on dogs and their nose wrinkles as biometrics since they offer unique characteristics like human fingerprints. The user simply uploads a photograph of their dog’s face through a dedicated app so that the patterns of the nose wrinkles can be recognized.

BLOCKPET 

Korean Pet Startup BlockPet is a Blockchain-based social media pet community platform that also offers a rewards system. It creates wallets by generating unique IDs of pets through pet identification technology. Users can post content about their pets in the pet community and get rewarded for their content. Think of it as an Instagram for pets, but where the pet owners get rewarded for uploading content. They are partnered with Klaytn and will run the Blockchain application on the Klaytn Blockchain. Blockpet has obtained funding from Accelerator New Paradigm Investment, a subsidiary of Korean VC firm TS Investment. With so many pet lovers eager to post their pets online, Blockpet could take off. 

Petner

Pet startup in Korea, Petner, is a pet-sitting service for dogs, cats, birds, and even reptiles. This pet-sitting service is different because they only allow veterinary students and current vets to register as pet sitters. Petner offers three primary benefits. These services include pet boarding, house sitting, and dog walking. Pet boarding allows users to bring their pets to a sitter’s home to be taken care of for a certain period. House sitting is a call-out service where a pet sitter will come to the user’s home for daily meals, cleaning up, and walking. They offer regular photo and video updates via Kakao. Therefore pet owners will get updates on how their pets are doing while away.

Pet Me Up

Pet startup in Korea Pet Me Up is a taxi service for pets. When a user requests a taxi, Pet Me Up will match them with a professional driver so the user and their pet can travel to their destination safely. Most taxis in Korea might be too small for a large-sized dog. In addition, most taxis in Korea will not allow pets in their cab. The GPS-based app meter lets the user know the rates for the ride. In addition, Pet Me Up offers a professional reservation counseling agent to make reservations more convenient. Next time you travel with your pet, give Pet Me Up a try. 

Dog Mate 

Dog mate is a Korean pet startup that takes care of dogs when pet owners have to leave their homes for an extended period. Currently, most Korean pet owners leave their pets at a pet hotel. With Dog Mate, owners can leave their pets at home and have a pet sitter visit their home to take care of their pets. In addition, the user can drop off their pet at the pet-sitter home. This service is focused mainly on dogs because dogs need to be walked daily. 

Pet Forest 

Pet startup in Korea, Pet Forest is a place for pet owners to remember their pets after passing away. It is a premium funeral home for pets. They are staffed with qualified pet funeral directors for the pet funeral process. Pet Forest offers pet funeral services, cremations, and spaces to keep urns so that family members can visit their pets. 

Walky Doggy (Dog Master)

Walky Doggy is one of the few pet startups in Korea specializing in dog training. They are the operator of Dog Master, an app that offers owners basic dog parenting information and training. The training process is divided into categories, from training puppies to more advanced dogs. There are over 230 dog training content on the Dog Master app. Some of the content includes step-by-step video tutorials that are very easy to follow.

21Gram

21Gram also offers pet funeral services. Their platform provides bookings of animal funeral homes via searches based on location, costs, and service requirements. In addition, they also provide counseling services and consulting to help pet owners carry out the funeral arrangements in the right way.

PetPeoTalk (dogibogi)

PetPeoTalk is the creator of the dogibogi app. It records your pets, expression, their level of separation anxiety, and sickness signals using AI technology. The AI-enabled monitor studies if a pet alone at home is experiencing separation anxiety through the frequency of specific actions such as howling. All this is monitored in real time. The aim is to upgrade the technology to detect diseases early on by reading the pet’s behavior.