PetCart is the combination of both love and hardship together. Co-founder and director, Nilendu Maiti had to go Mumbai to get his pet treated and realised the need for such space in Bengaluru too. Nilendu and Shekar Gaonkar, co-founder and CEO teamed up to build this pet resort that offers overnight lodging and daycares facilities for pets.
Bengaluru with a large millennial pool is has led to an increase in pet adoption and pet parents. Also today, youngsters are more than finicky about ensuring that their pets are treated like family members, whereever they go. They even look at pet-friendly hotels when they travel. Shekar shares, “The foremost change is there are no more ‘Beware of Dogs’ asthe humanisation of pets is the biggest change in the past five years. The pet ecosystem has expanded beyond dogs and people are adopting cats, birds, etc. as their pet child.”
After a bad experience, Nilendu and Shekar Gaonkar have done extensive research, analysed the unorganised industry and came up with this platform to fill the gaps that pets and pet parents have been facing in this city.
Nilendu says, “Our aim was to provide all the services that are required for holistic development and well-being of the pets. With carnivals, pool fest and naming ceremony we celebrate the fests for both the pets and pet parents.”
Given that this was relatively new concept in Bengaluru, the challenges were aplenty, “Getting trained and quality man-power was also a challenge initially. Another major challenge was to get necessary permissions and licenses for a concept like pet resort, which was something people never heard of. Also customers suggested transparency,” adds Shekhar.
With more and more nuclear homes and singletons with disposal incomes, the humanisation of pets was the obvious outcome. Nilendu opines, “The awareness levels towards pets has increased and pet parents have started giving importance to the health, hygiene, and well-being of their pet and are willing to spend money for their pet child’s well-being.”
Natasha Gowda, a customer who boarded her three pets while travelling shares, “I had to board my pups; Maira, Jackie and Zuri for three days over the weekend. During my wedding I had to board them for lodging. But the assured safety had allowed me continue till for longer as the constant updates and communication were reassuring. Our pets were happy because they had found new friends and playmates. Also Naira’s birthday recently was a sort of ‘fur’nival at the venue with all other pets and pet parents participating in the same.”
