The Pet Sitting Dog Fight

Seattle based Rover.com, a site that connects dog owners and sitters, recently announced a $25 million funding round led by Technology Crossover Ventures.

This brings the total amount raised by Rover to $50 million across 4 funding rounds.

Other investors in Rover include Menlo Ventures and actor/tech investor Ashton Kuchar.

It also sets Rover up for a dog fight with the other dog sitting startup, DogVacay.

They've raised $47 million from VC powerhouse Andressen Horowitz, Sherpa Ventures and others. 

Both firms offer a list of pre-screened pet-sitters that can be sorted by geography and availability, similar to how Airbnb’s offers lodging for humans.

Both charge an average of about $30 per day for doggie vacation stays.

The market research firm IBISWorld says that U.S. pet owners will spend $2.7 billion boarding their animals this year, so there's definitely a big market to go after.

The pet industry continues to grow faster than overall economy with he main driver being pet humanization, the trend towards people treating their pets as family members. See our Pet Trends category for more on this topic.