The US pet industry hit $152 billion in 2024. That number gets thrown around a lot. What doesn't get enough attention is the slice of that pie dedicated to pet services — grooming, boarding, daycare, training, walking — and the software that's supposed to run those businesses.
There are over 170,000 pet services businesses in the United States. The software market serving them is roughly $132 million. And no single company owns more than 5% of it.
That's not a competitive market. That's an empty field.
The Numbers
Let's start with the macro picture. The pet services segment is one of the fastest-growing categories in consumer spending, and it shows no sign of slowing down.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total US pet industry (2024) | $152 billion | APPA |
| Pet services spending (2024) | $13.2 billion | APPA |
| Pet grooming & boarding market (2025) | $15.5 billion | IBISWorld |
| Services segment CAGR | 7–8% | Multiple |
| YoY growth (2024) | +10% | APPA |
| Pet-owning households (US) | 94 million | APPA |
And on the supply side, here's who's actually running these businesses:
| Business Type | Estimated Count |
|---|---|
| Groomers | 60,000–70,000 |
| Sitters | ~35,000 |
| Trainers | 25,000–30,000 |
| Walkers | 20,000–25,000 |
| Daycare facilities | ~20,000 |
| Boarding kennels | ~9,000 |
| Total | 169,481+ |
The grooming and boarding segment alone grew at 7.3% annually from 2020 to 2025 — through a pandemic, through inflation, through everything. Pet services businesses aren't cyclical. They're resilient.
Who's Buying
The demand side of this market is undergoing a generational shift that most pet software companies haven't caught up to.
Gen Z pet ownership surged 43.5% from 2023 to 2024, according to APPA. That's not gradual adoption. That's a wave. And these owners have fundamentally different expectations than the boomers who built the original customer base for companies like Gingr and PetExec.
Gen Z doesn't call to book appointments. They don't tolerate clunky desktop-only interfaces. They expect mobile-first booking, real-time notifications, transparent pricing, and instant communication. When the software doesn't deliver that, they leave a one-star review and move on.
Mobile service adoption accelerated roughly 30% in 2025, driven in part by AI-powered scheduling and automated reminders. The businesses adopting modern tools are winning the customers that matter most — the ones who will spend more per visit, book more frequently, and stay loyal to businesses that respect their time.
The Software Gap
Here's where it gets interesting. The US petcare software market is approximately $132 million, growing at a 9.6% CAGR through 2035. That's a healthy, expanding market by any standard.
But look at the competitive landscape: no single player controls more than 5% of the market.
Think about that. 170,000+ potential customers. $132 million in annual software spend. And the entire market is fragmented across dozens of small vendors, most of them running decade-old codebases with bolted-on mobile apps and extractive pricing models.
| Market Segment | Size | Description |
|---|---|---|
| TAM | 170,000+ | All US pet services businesses |
| SAM | 40,000–50,000 | Single-location, legacy software, frustrated |
| SOM (3-year) | 1,000–2,000 | Realistic capture with focused GTM |
The SAM — the businesses that are actively underserved, running on outdated tools, and open to switching — represents 40,000 to 50,000 businesses. That's not a niche. That's a market begging for a better option.
The Incumbents Are Asleep
The dominant story in pet services software over the last five years has been private equity consolidation. Togetherwork, the PE-backed holding company, now owns Gingr, PetExec, and Revelation Pets. Combined, they serve roughly 7,000 customers — about 4% of the total market.
Their playbook is familiar to anyone who's watched PE roll-ups in other verticals: acquire fragmented players, cut costs, raise prices, extract margin. It's not an innovation strategy. It's a harvest strategy.
And the results reflect it. Customer satisfaction scores are declining. Support quality is eroding. Product development has slowed to a crawl. The incumbents are optimizing for EBITDA, not customer experience.
Meanwhile, MoeGo — a venture-backed challenger — raised a $30.5 million Series A, grew to 4,500 customers, and is posting 100%+ year-over-year growth. They're proving a simple thesis: if you build modern, mobile-first software for pet services businesses and price it fairly, customers will switch. Fast.
The PE consolidation strategy only works when there's no better alternative. The moment a modern option appears, the switching costs they thought were moats turn out to be resentment waiting for an exit.
What Comes Next
Here's our read on where this market is heading.
The next generation of pet services software won't look like the current generation at all. The winners will be mobile-native, AI-integrated, and built for the way Gen Z actually interacts with services businesses. Scheduling will be intelligent. Communication will be automated but personal. Pricing will be transparent. And the software will work for the business owner — not against them.
The 9.6% CAGR through 2035 is the baseline. The real opportunity is in market share capture from incumbents who've stopped innovating. When 96% of the market is either unserved or underserved, growth doesn't require expanding the pie. It requires showing up with a better product.
We believe the pet services market is one of the most attractive opportunities in vertical SaaS right now — large addressable market, fragmented competition, accelerating demand from a new generation of pet owners, and incumbents who've chosen extraction over innovation.
The data supports it. The timing is right. And the market is wide open.
Building in pet services?
We're working with pet businesses that want modern software without the PE overhead. If that sounds like you, let's talk.
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