With its sights set on causing irritation to dominant market players, new subscription-based pet wellbeing brand ITCH launches today, with the aim of disrupting the pet care market.

Co-founded by direct-to-consumer entrepreneur James Cox [co-founder of sleep tech firm Simba], pet supplies retailers Jonny and Adam Gould [co-founders Monster Pet Supplies] and marketer Charlotte Harper [former CMO of Zoopla and UK MD Match.com], ITCH is initially launching with a flea care subscription service.

Developed in collaboration with veterinary experts, in response to the increasing demand for better-personalised pet care, ITCH’s tailored monthly flea subscription service makes preventing infestation and treating pets much quicker, cheaper and more convenient for busy owners than buying over the counter.

The brand has initially raised circa £5m investment from Seedcamp, Nigel Wray and Cox’s YYX Capital amongst others, with a further injection of £10m planned for Q4 2019 to support the brand roll out to the US in Q1 2020.

ITCH will also offer range extensions into the wider pet care market with innovative personalised calming, skin, joint and dental products. There are also plans to use curated and user-generated content to create an online platform and community, in collaboration with its team of veterinary experts, designed to answer the plethora of wellbeing questions pet owners face on a daily basis.

With research by Mintel showing that the UK pet care market is set to reach £2.1bn by 2023 and the UK’s flea market estimated to be worth £370m by 2021, ITCH is in the perfect position to take a sizeable bite out of the market.

Co-founder and Executive Chairman of ITCH James Cox said: “The popularity of direct-to-consumer goods brands offering products continues to grow at pace. We’ve seen everything from healthcare, financial services, travel, transport and electronic goods all race to innovate so that they can directly engage with customers using social, mobile, and digital channels and devices. It’s now time for the buoyant pet care market to innovate.”

Source: https://www.businessleader.co.uk/pet-wellbeing-brand-receives-5m-investment/70214/