Wag!
“Can a gig-economy pet services marketplace scale profitably enough to justify venture-scale capital deployment?”
Founded2015
HQSan Francisco, California, U.S.
FoundersBrendan Rogers, Joshua Viner, Jonathan Viner, Jason Meltzer
Total raised$368M+
Latest roundSecondary Market (post-bankruptcy, 2025)
Valuation~$650M (2018 SoftBank round)
IndustryMarketplace / Gig economy
The story
Founded in 2015 as an on-demand dog walking app, Wag! rapidly expanded with SoftBank's $300M infusion but faced governance and operational challenges that led SoftBank to exit at a loss in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted its core in-person services business, prompting aggressive cost-cutting through AP automation with BILL and diversification into adjacent pet care services (training, vet care). Despite these pivots, the company ultimately filed for bankruptcy in July 2025, unable to achieve sustainable unit economics in the gig-economy pet services market.
Last 12 months
Product timeline
2015
Founded in Los Angeles, California as an on-demand dog walking mobile app.· pivot
2018
Raised $300M from SoftBank Vision Fund at ~$650M valuation; expanded to 100+ cities.· banking
2019
SoftBank sold its entire $300M stake back to the company at a significant loss.· pivot
2020
Used BILL Accounts Payable to slash costs by 60% during COVID pandemic and diversified into new service offerings.· pivot
2025
Filed for bankruptcy on July 21, 2025.· pivot
The stack
2 layers disclosed in Wag!’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Accounting
in the full report
Accounting gap: minor
1 more provider across 1 layer, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.