Kibus Petcare (*) is an automated pet food feeder that supplies healthy food. An automatic, convenient device that cooks healthy, natural, and minimally processed dog food.
What prompted you to launch?
My co-founder Albert has been in the pet food industry all his life. His grandfather founded a company that has been feeding animals for 70 years now. He was running the sales and marketing departments of the family business and saw that the market was changing. Nowadays, pets are part of the family, and we want to give them the best nutrition. Pet parents are no longer satisfied with the heavily processed industrial solutions, like kibble and cans, and are moving to healthier alternatives, like cooking at home, which is very inconvenient and requires a preparation process before every meal. We saw there was a strong need in the market for a minimally processed, healthy diet for dogs, but conveniently for their families. We came up with the idea of a device that cooks healthy dog food automatically, in the most convenient way, and started developing it. We developed a robotic cooking device for pets, starting with dogs.
What problem(s) are you solving?
Kibus offers pet parents a healthy and natural diet in the most convenient way. With Kibus, they can feed their pets human-grade, warm, and freshly-prefer dog food. Our food tastes, smells, and looks like the food we eat ourselves! Therefore, it has many advantages in terms of taste and especially in terms of health (better digestion, more energy, healthier skin and coat, and longer and happier life). The good thing is that it does not require any effort for the human members of the family. It is as easy as filling our recipes into the device and filling the water tank once a week, and that’s it! Kibus makes the whole cooking process automatic, thanks to our robotic cooking smart device. You can actually schedule all meals from your smartphone, interact with the device, and receive all the notifications.
What is immediately next for your company?
Developing a device, an app, and a food range is difficult. We have been working hard for years to develop and industrialize our robotic cooking for pets solution, and we are finally in the mass production stage. We have also been able to certify and protect everything in terms of intellectual property. We have started selling our system to pet parents in Spain and validated everything with more than 200 pet parents, getting great feedback from both dogs and their families. Now we are working intending to get 2,000 subscribers in Spain within the next 18 months before starting our internationalization. We have also started a promising partnership with Nestlé Purina, the largest pet food company in Europe, and we are doing great things together.
Robotic cooking for pets?
We have developed the first device that cooks healthy dog food automatically. Our robotic cooking for pets system is designed to be on the floor and works with our own recipes of dehydrated pet food. The device is easy to clean, all parts are in contact with food or water, and easily removable and dishwasher safe. It is also an IoT device that can be activated and scheduled through a mobile app. The system includes the connected appliance and the food range: our delicious and healthy recipes are made of human-grade ingredients. The robotic cooking device serves them warm and freshly prepared in a risotto-looking style. We have different recipes available (like chicken and apple or salmon and rice, for example) and offer a personalized plan for each pet parent.
What is your business model?
Kibus sells D2C through our own e-commerce. As a user, you only need to give us some information about your dog, and you get a personalized plan for them. By only paying a monthly fee (from €39 to €99 for most dogs, depending on their size), you get access to everything: all the food your dog needs and the right to use the robotic cooking device and the app at home. Pet parents can stay with Kibus for as long as they wish. It is a very convenient system for pet parents since they get everything they need at their doorstep once a month.
What’s your current greatest challenge?
Kibus is a brand-new system. Kibus’ robotic cooking for pets system has many advantages, but we want as many people as possible to know about them. Therefore, market education is a big challenge for us. We are doing different things to achieve so, but it is just the beginning. Our aim is that every pet parent knows about Kibus and the benefits it can bring to their lives (healthier nutrition for their dogs and more convenience for them).
Are you satisfied with your rate of progress?
Yes, I am. The path here has not been easy. As they say, hardware is hard. We have created a brand new category from nowhere, which means a lot of R&D and industrialization. The macro situation did not help: covid, war, the crisis in the electronic components, a rise in the cost of raw materials and transport, etc., but we are very happy with the result. We created a new system that dogs and their families love, which was a big challenge. As I have said, we are just new to getting more pet parents to know about this system to improve their dog’s nutrition, and this is an exciting challenge.
“Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying”
Roy T. Bennet
(*) I am a shareholder in Kibus Petcare.