Pet care stocks were big beneficiaries of COVID-19 and the run doesn’t appear to be slowing down in 2021.

Pet adoption surged as people used pets to ease stress, boredom and loneliness amid COVID-19 restrictions. Naturally this has had a flow-on effect to companies offering pet care services.

One pet care stock that benefited was Mad Paws (ASX:MPA) which only listed last month. It offers pet sitting, pet food subscriptions and from this week onwards, pet insurance.

The company reported its Gross Merchandise Value was 43 per cent higher than the prior corresponding period.

It also made a record number of bookings despite the March quarter typically being the quietest, as well as adding 8,500 more customers, taking the total to 95,000.

Mad Paws explicitly credited increased pet ownership as a result of COVID-19 to its performance.

 

The newest pet care stock

However Mad Paws is no longer the newest minted pet care stock – that now belongs to Tinybeans (ASX:TNY) which despite being listed since 2017 has only today announced it is getting into the space – and in the US.

The US has seen 11 million US households adopt pets since COVID-19 broke out. This has been credited to “tech-inclined millennials who spare no expense on their pets and view them as family members”.

Tinybeans has a social media platform to capture children’s memories and share them privately among family members.

It says from next month “pet parents” will be able to use its platform to capture pet memories.

“This new feature not only services our existing users with a richer experience that caters to their entire family, but also broadens the user acquisition funnel to millions of pet parents who treat their parents like children,” said CEO Eddie Geller.

“This platform enhances and strengthens our position as the preeminent experience for parents and families everywhere, now inclusive of pets.”

The company says it will begin to recognise revenue in fiscal Q4 2021 and it has signed its inaugural advertising partner in pet food maker Hill’s Pet Nutrition.

Both TinyBeans and Mad Paws saw slight share price rises at the start of trade this morning.

TinyBeans (ASX:TNY) and Mad Paws (ASX:MPA) share price chart

 

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