Smart Collars Are Getting Smarter—And Investors Are Taking Notice

Issue #192

May 21st, 2025

Quick Hits:

⛵ Day 20 of a guy who quit his job and is sailing the world with his cat

❌🥩 One of the most influential canine nutritionists announces he’s done with raw dog food

🎽 Adidas launches a pet collection exclusively for the Chinese market

🛝 New concept: A massive play center for dogs, with ball pits and all, is going viral 

The Rise of GPS Smart Collars

Pet tech has boomed on the back of GPS-enabled smart collars that function as LoJack for pets.

Brands like Tractive and Fi have built loyal followings by helping owners locate escaped dogs in real time and log cats and dog’s daily steps.

New entrants are pushing the envelope further – for example, Satellai (launched at CES 2025) touts a satellite-connected collar that can track pets off-grid without cellular signal.

The global pet wearables market is surging alongside these innovations: it was valued at $3.27B in 2023 and is expected to reach $11.25B by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 14.77% from 2024-2032.

The U.S. alone accounts for a sizable share – about $885M in 2023 – on pace to roughly double to $2.07 billion by 2030. Notably, GPS-based devices remain a key growth driver (projected ~15% CAGR) as keeping tabs on pets’ whereabouts continues to be a core use case.

Early smart collars were devices, sold to solve a single pain point: “Where is my dog?”

Satellai’s offering is emblematic of this first wave’s focus – it emphasizes precision tracking (dual-band GNSS for accuracy) and virtual fencing with correction cues to contain wandering pups.

These hardware-centered advances have been critical in popularizing pet wearables and reassuring pet parents.

Yet even with an estimated 1.3 million active users on Tractive’s platform (out of a market of hundreds of millions of pets), the surface of what’s possible – and profitable – in pet tech is only beginning to be scratched.

What Investors Are Really Betting On

There’s a clear shift underway: investors aren’t just backing better GPS trackers – they’re backing data platforms built around pet behavior and wellness.

Tractive recently surpassed €100 million in annual recurring revenue (~$105 M ARR) purely from its subscription services (hardware sales not even counted), proving that pet owners will pay for ongoing insights.

The company raised $35 million in a growth round to fuel expansion, and competitor Fi secured $30 million in Series B funding – hefty bets that reflect expectations beyond one-time device sales.

Why? 

Because a smart collar that gathers rich behavioral and health data can unlock a whole ecosystem of value, from predictive health alerts to new revenue streams like insurance (Tractive recently launched their own insurance offering) or diet coaching.

Crucially, these next-gen collars are becoming sticky, data-driven platforms rather than single-purpose gadgets.

Fi’s collar, for instance, doesn’t just track location – it monitors the dog’s movement, activity and sleep patterns, and the company is using machine learning to flag potential health issues from that data.

This kind of data flywheel creates compounding advantages: the more pets on the platform, the more data to train algorithms and benchmark what “normal” looks like. (Tractive even notes that its new health features compare each dog’s vitals to data from thousands of similar dogs to detect anomalies.)

As the insights get sharper, pet parents derive more value and stay subscribed longer. Tractive’s CEO reports that investing in advanced features “pay[s] back because customers use the product more and for longer periods” – in other words, better data means better retention.

From a business standpoint, smart collar companies are inching toward a SaaS model with pet-friendly packaging.

Most offer annual service plans – e.g. Fi’s series 3 collar retails around $99 with a which includes a 6-month subscription ($189 for 1-year) for GPS connectivity and data features – generating predictable recurring revenue.

Tractive hitting $100M ARR was a milestone, but it’s not the ceiling; it’s a sign that these companies have amassed a base of engaged users and a trove of pet data.

The real upside for investors is in leveraging that base to deliver continuous services (health monitoring, training tips, content) and form partnerships (with vet chains, insurers, pet food brands) that drive additional revenue per user.

In short, the smart collar is evolving into an operating system for pet care – and that is what today’s investors are banking on.

The New Breed of Full-Stack Wellness Devices

PetPace 2.0 Smart Collar: A veterinary-grade health monitor that tracks pets’ vital signs and behaviors.

Early health-centric devices like PetPace pioneered features such as heart rate variability and stress monitoring, collecting an unmatched array of data points (from temperature and pulse to posture and calories).

While PetPace pioneered real-time health monitoring with clinical-grade metrics, its focus on veterinary utility made it more suitable for professional use than mass consumer adoption. Its journey showed that real-time data isn’t enough — winning pet owners' hearts (and wallets) also requires intuitive design, emotional engagement, and consumer-focused UX..

Now, a new class of smart wearables is building on that foundation to cater directly to consumer needs in health, behavior, and emotional wellness. These devices don’t just log data – they interpret and act on it in real time.

For instance, the Traini Smart Dog Collar, introduced at CES 2025, claims to autonomously identify and track more than 10 emotional states in dogs by using AI to analyze bark patterns and vital signs like heart rate and body temperature.

The collar notifies pet parents when it detects signs of anxiety, excitement, or distress, enabling real-time emotional monitoring and response. The collar notifies pet parents if stress is detected and enables real-time monitoring.

If the collar senses your dog is distressed or anxious, it can alert you instantly via smartphone – effectively giving your pup a “voice” to communicate feelings.

Another startup is even developing a full-stack smart device (It’s not a collar) that goes a step further: it combines GPS tracking, biometric sensors, and AI mood detection, but also intervenes when needed.

Imagine a scenario where the device detects your dog’s heart rate variability and vocalizations trending toward high stress (say, when he’s home alone or a thunderstorm hits) – it could automatically trigger soothing haptic vibrations or play calming music through built-in speakers to ease the anxiety.

This kind of real-time, automatic intervention marks a profound leap from the passive trackers of yesterday.

It’s not just cool tech for tech’s sake – it targets a real pain point for pet parents. Separation anxiety, boredom, and stress-related behaviors are not fringe issues; studies suggest nearly two-thirds of dogs experience anxiety from triggers like loud noises or being left alone.

The opportunity in pet wearables is shifting from basic safety (finding lost pets) to proactive wellness and behavior management.

Devices that can detect a health irregularity or rising anxiety and then do something about it (whether alerting a human or initiating a calming stimulus) stand to deepen the pet–owner bond and unlock new commercial pathways.

A smart device that knows how your dog feels opens the door to services like automatic vet telehealth check-ins, or integrations with pet insurance that reward preventive care.

The real prize is an ecosystem where hardware, software, and services converge to improve pet well-being.

Smart Collars as Interfaces – The Next SaaS Platform in Pet Care

Ultimately, smart collars are on track to become interfaces, not just products.

Just as the Apple Watch graduated from a step-counter to a health monitoring platform (now used in some insurance wellness programs and health studies), the modern pet wearable is poised to transcend its origins as a tracking gadget.

In fact, the trajectory of pet wearables closely parallels human wearables. First solve an acute problem (safety/location for pets, fitness tracking for people), then steadily layer in health insights, predictive alerts, and integrations with broader services.

Today’s advanced collars can monitor vital signs, emotional cues, and activity trends continuously – effectively turning your dog into a walking data generator for their well-being.

This data is already starting to interface with other stakeholders.

For example, Tractive has partnered with pet insurers to share wellness data, where pet parents earn points for hitting daily activity goals which can be redeemed for plan discounts.

We can easily envision vets subscribing to a feed of their patients’ collar data or insurers adjusting premiums based on health metrics (much like life insurers incentivize humans to wear fitness trackers).

The strategic implication is that the smart collar is becoming the pet’s equivalent of a user interface for a host of pet care services.

It can be the trigger for a preventative vet visit, the verification mechanism for an insurance claim, or the delivery vehicle for a training or nutrition SaaS program.

Pet industry founders and investors should recognize that owning this interface – and the rich stream of pet health and behavior data flowing from it – means owning the customer relationship over the pet’s lifetime.

It transforms a one-time hardware sale into a recurring service model, with opportunities for high-margin add-ons and partnerships.

In short, emotionally intelligent pet wearables are not just the next gadget they are emerging as the next SaaS platform in pet care, promising a new era of data-driven, empathetic services for our four-legged family members.

WINNER 🏆️ : S&P 500

 Proudly introducing the DoggyDex™, an index comprised of 10 publicly traded companies whose primary focus is the dog/pet industry.

List of tickers used can be found below.

The yellow line-plot in the chart represents these companies above (DoggyDex™) and their combined performance against both the S&P 500 and Bitcoin on a weekly basis.

Pawformance is measured by % gains & losses.

• $CHWY - Chewy: E-commerce platform for pet supplies

• $IDXX - Idexx Labs: Vet point of care instruments and vet software

• $FRPT - Fresh Pet: Pet food company

• $ELAN - Elanco: Manufactures pet disease prevention products

• $PETS - PetMeds: Online pet pharmacy

• $ZTS - Zoetis: World's largest producer of meds and vaccines for pets and livestock

• $TRUP - Trupanion: Pet insurance company

• $WOOF - Petco Health & Wellness co.: Pet health & wellness company

• $BARK - BarkBox: Subscription service providing dog products, services, and experiences

• $PET - Wag! Group Co.: Tech platform that allows pet owners to connect with industry professionals for services such as walking, training, etc.

The pet funeral services market is quietly becoming a big deal, and this graphic makes that pretty clear.

In 2023, the industry was worth $1.7 billion, and it's on track to hit $4.2 billion by 2032.

That’s a 10.5% CAGR, which is impressive by any standard.

It highlights how pet parents are increasingly viewing their animals as true family members, worthy of respectful and emotional goodbyes.

Cremation is leading the way with $1.3 billion in revenue already (as of 2023), and dogs are driving much of the demand, projected to account for $2.2 billion by 2032.

What’s especially worth noting for U.S. pet businesses is that America alone is expected to make up $1.1 billion of that 2032 total.

That’s a huge chunk, and it spells opportunity for operators - from cremation tech and urn manufacturers to grief counselors and pet memorial platforms.

For marketers and founders in the pet space, this data isn't just about death, it's about a growing emotional economy where memorialization matters.

Products and services that honor a pet’s life could see serious growth as more people seek closure and commemoration when their pets pass.

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