A former senior executive of Zebao started a business and became the number one in the red ocean market!

Fast-paced life and high pressure are common problems faced by people in modern society. In this environment, the role of pets as emotional sustenance becomes more prominent. Some people say, "Pets can provide their owners with enough emotional value, relieve loneliness and anxiety, and with their company, even if life is busy, they feel warm."

In order to satisfy their own emotional needs, more and more people, especially overseas consumers, are spending more and more on their pets, which means that pets are not just "furry children", but have become a new way to make money. After tapping into this huge business opportunity, a large number of e-commerce players have entered the pet supplies related track and set their sights on overseas markets with broader development space.

Petlibro is a "dark horse" brand among many players. Its products are sold in more than 40 countries and regions around the world, with monthly sales of nearly 10,000 units, and it has been ranked No. 1 in Amazon's category for many years. Its successful overseas expansion undoubtedly proves the strength of China's "smart manufacturing", and its experience is also worth learning from for a number of domestic brands.

Former executives of Zebao successfully created the "Apple" of the pet industry

According to public information, Petlibro was founded in 2019 and is a smart pet products brand affiliated to Shenzhen Lemuluo Technology Co., Ltd. (DesignLibro) . The brand has been committed to providing high-quality smart pet products for pets and pet owners through innovative technology and design, improving the relationship between people and pets and enhancing the happiness of pets' lives.

The story of how Petlibro was founded actually originated from the worries of several young cat owners.

As their previous companies often had to travel on business, these young people often worried about the difficulty of feeding cats. However, at that time, there were basically no such smart pet products with both high quality and low prices in China.

Under common anxiety, these people got together, and after some discussion they decided to do it themselves, and then established the brand Petlibro.

It is understood that the identities and backgrounds of these people are not simple. The founder Wu Yu is one of the former executives of ZEBO and served as the general manager of ZEBO's US subsidiary. Other core members of the company are also former employees of ZEBO. They all have rich experience in cross-border e-commerce and their technical research and development capabilities are also quite efficient and professional.

Based on this, they are determined to use the power of technology to create a smart pet feeder, and strive to make it the "Apple" of the pet industry , thereby solving pain points such as the difficulty of feeding cats outside and the easy jam of food in ordinary feeders.

Easier said than done. The first basic feeder launched in the year of the brand's establishment received a lot of negative reviews, including "food stuck, poor sealing, cat food damp and moldy, etc." Although it suffered a severe setback at the beginning, the team did not get discouraged and began to seriously research the market situation. They not only deeply understood and recorded the eating habits of different cats, but also disassembled and analyzed countless feeders on the market, and finally found that the key to the food stuck problem was the food outlet.

After repeated improvements and testing by the team, in 2020 , Petlibro's first automatic feeder Granary was officially launched on the Amazon platform, and quickly took the first place in the "pet automatic feeder" market share.

In addition, it has also launched a number of innovative products, such as smart water dispensers with night vision function, feeders that support WIFI remote monitoring, etc., to meet the pet feeding needs in different scenarios. Among them, the flagship product is the Granary series of smart feeders, which not only have the function of timing and quantitative feeding, but also are equipped with a 1080P high-definition camera, which can be remotely monitored and fed through a mobile phone APP, and can also conduct two-way voice interaction.

In the comment section, many pet owners called it a "cat bowl that can be used for video calls", and some consumers said, "Since I bought it, my cat can eat freely and I can lie down too."

Petlibro is on a roll and has become the No. 1 on the track

In just over five years since its establishment, Petlibro's products have covered a variety of categories including smart feeders, smart water dispensers, feeder drying bags, water dispenser filters, smart collars, toys, etc. With the advantages of convenience and intelligence, its products have become a popular choice for a large number of pet owners, and its sales and market position have been significantly improved.

Currently, Petlibro products are sold in more than 40 countries and regions around the world. By 2024, Petlibro's global sales have accumulated to more than US$50 million (approximately RMB 364 million), and its annual sales have exceeded RMB 100 million, successfully standing out in the pet supplies market.

Data shows that in 2024, Petlibro's flagship product, a smart feeder with a camera, topped the BS list on Amazon's pet supplies list in the United States, with monthly sales of 9,000 units, nearly 10,000 cumulative reviews, and a user rating of 4.8 points.

On the independent site, Petlibro's performance is also very impressive. In December 2024, the brand's sales on the independent site reached US$870,900.

Petlibro has not only made rapid progress in sales, but also gained a lot of favor in the capital market. Since the end of 2020, Petlibro has received nearly 10 million US dollars in investment from Sequoia Capital based on its popular smart feeder. In 2021, Petlibro once again received financial support from Sequoia Capital and individual investors; in December 2023, Petlibro completed another US$14 million in Series B financing, with the investor being Shenzhen Innovation Investment Group.

It is precisely because of the huge financial support that Petlibro is able to focus on product research and development, expand the market, and ultimately produce high-end smart products that meet consumer needs.

In recent years, with the rise of social media platforms, Petlibro has also put a lot of effort into its marketing strategy . Currently, it has layouts on mainstream social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

Taking TikTok as an example, the official account of Petlibro has 178,900 followers and more than 360,000 likes. On this platform, it mainly publishes videos such as "Human-Pet Interaction", "Feeding Cats + Product Display", and "Interesting Street Interviews". In addition, it combines promotion by Internet celebrities in the pet field to continuously attract the attention of the target group and greatly increase the exposure of the product.

According to FastMoss data, Petlibro sold more than 8,000 products in TikTok's US store, with total sales reaching US$516,000.

It must be said that Petlibro’s successful rise overseas is inseparable from the explosion of the “global pet economy”.

Data shows that as early as 2022, the size of the global pet products market had reached US$261 billion (approximately RMB 1.89 trillion). By 2024, this size had risen to US$296.8 billion (approximately RMB 2.16 trillion). It is expected to further increase to US$350 billion at a compound annual growth rate of 6.1% in the next two years.

Among them, North America is the world's largest pet products market, accounting for about 40% of the market share, followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific, with market shares of 28% and 23% respectively.

In the future, smart pet products may become the standard for pet owners, and the market will continue to heat up. After all, young people today cannot afford to mistreat their furry children even if they suffer for themselves. Under this trend, perhaps more players like Petlibro will continue to enter this market, and China's "smart manufacturing" will shine in many countries around the world.