Pet wellness company Lyka, has secured $25 million in additional Series B funding, following an initial raise of $30 million six months ago.
The capital raise was led by Itai Tsiddon from LGVP, with this significant investment piquing further interest within investment circles.
Lyka’s Founder, Anna Podolsky, said that StepStone Group became interested in Lyka a few months after the initial Series B round closed in October 2022.
“Given the capital market tightening, we decided to secure the capital at favourable terms to continue our high growth trajectory. We raised this money early as a preventive move ahead of a potential recession when it would be more difficult to raise capital. This additional investment is a vote of confidence for Lyka as a major disruptor in the pet industry,” says Podolsky.
“It’s also good to see our local Aussie investors are back for this follow-on round. AfterWork Ventures, Shearwater and Point King Capital have backed us since the initial rounds and are doubling down in this one. Then we have our customers, who have supported our fresh food movement and helped us approach 20 million bowls served. We have so many customers contacting us, telling us about the immediate and visible changes happening in their pet’s health. This daily reminder is the gumption we need to push ahead to scale quickly so we can help more dogs than ever.”
Lyka Pet Food was established in 2018 when Podolsky decided to ditch store bought pet food, choosing instead to cook for her beloved dog Lyka from scratch. The company was co-founded by renowned integrative veterinarian Dr Matthew Muir.
Each meal ordered from Lyka can be custom designed to accommodate a dog’s age, breed, weight, activity level and food sensitivities, and because the food is delivered fresh and is human grade, there’s also no need to add preservatives to the custom formulations.
Podolsky says that the $55 million capital raise has enable Lyka to widen its reach, with the company now able to service more areas including Tasmania, Western Australia, and more regional areas around the country.
This follow-on round of investment will continue supporting the increased demand that the team is seeing in dog wellness, and will be deployed to accelerate research, education and awareness. It will also go toward infrastructure, with Lyka building a world-class, human-grade facility in Melbourne, that will ultimately enable them to increase production capacity and serve even more pets, with the aim of improving their quality and length of life.
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