Yahoo Finance

Pet care platform Rover expanding its international footprint, bringing the marketplace to two new countries and acquiring a European-based dog sitting and walking platform. The company planning to invest $15 million over the next five years for further expansion. Joining us now, we've got Aaron Easterly, he is Rover's CEO. Aaron, great to speak with you. I know that Blackstone had taken the company private in a $2.3 billion deal back in 2024. Walk us through how that has impacted your growth story since and how that's impacting your ability to expand in these areas internationally.

Yeah, overall, it's been a net positive. Um, one of the nice things about Blackstone is they're a pretty long-term oriented investor. Um, so when that transaction closed, we took a look at a lot of investments we were excited about that may have been a little bit more difficult to execute in a public company setting, um, and decided to go ahead with them. Um, so further expansion in Europe is one example of that.

And talk to me about more broadly how you think about public versus private, having experienced both. What are some of the shifts that you've noticed as you've gone private and why did that make sense for Rover?

Yeah, you know, I'd say that we are always a company that's been mission first. We want to make it possible for everyone to experience the unconditional love of a pet. The logistics of pet care is one of the barriers to more people having pets. And so that's always our primary focus. There are pros and cons of being public, there are pros and cons of being private. Um, so we're always very situational around what makes sense for the next stage of the company, um, and being able to be a little bit more longer term oriented in some of our investments, um, that take a little bit of time to develop, uh, made being private a nice thing at this point in time.

And I should mention that for our audience, you can look up private company data including the likes of Rover on the Yahoo Finance platform under our private markets page. But I do want to bring in Paul Gruenwald, my guest host. He has a question for you.

Hey, Aaron, it's Paul. I've never asked a pet care question before, I'm an economist, so forgive this. But Maddie and I were just chatting before. You know, we're talking about an economic slowdown and we're talking about consumers having like a, you know, uh, a discretionary bucket or a necessity bucket. So, where do you think the pet care, you know, your business fits in? Is it something that people do on a kind of discretionary basis or is this becoming more of a necessity as we kind of look through the the economic cycle?

Yeah. Um, if you look at pet parents, um, historically the view has been that pet parents view it as a necessity. Right. About 72% of pet parents, if you ask them, do they view themselves as a pet owner or specifically a parent, they will say parent. Um, so it's more akin to a parent-child bond than, uh, piece of property. Um, and with that, uh, the pets tend to be the last thing or spending on pets tend to be the last thing people cut in tough times. That being said, we did see not a reversal that trend, but a little bit of a moderation that trend over the past couple years. For the younger generations, um, inflation outpaced, um, their income growth. So you actually had a slight shrinking, uh, of real income for that group. And for the first time in maybe 20 years, we saw some amount of pet parents be a little bit more modest on, uh, how extravagant they were going with their pet food and treats and toys, um, and things like that. Uh, but overall, pet parents, uh, prioritize their pets in a lot of cases about themselves. Yes. Great to know. Thanks.

Yeah, it is great to know and it's also interesting, Aaron, too, one thing we've been talking about is whether pet parents might also be coming pet babysitters for others amid an economic slowdown. Can you talk to me about whether or not you're seeing an increase in gig economy work on the platform amid a moment of economic uncertainty?

We, uh, straddle the line between, uh, passion project and gig work. Um, so most of the people that are on Rover are doing Rover as side income. So in that sense, it is kind of like a gig. Um, but they're also doing it because they specifically love pets. Um, and so in that sense, you get people that choose to do this for reasons unrelated to their hourly earnings potential. Um, it's a a preference, um, in addition to a job. Um, we have seen an increase in the number of sitters applying to be on the platform. Um, you know, if anything, we have to moderate that a little bit to make sure that the demand ramps in pace with the supply. Uh, but we've been very happy with our supply dynamics and the amount of people that are excited to be on the Rover platform.

And and talk to me, too, about a stat that you all have. You did a Rover true cost of pet Parenthood report indicating that 52% of pet owners are concerned that tariffs will increase pet costs. Just curious what that signals to you about the way that tariffs are impacting some of the consumer sentiment of people who are using your platform.

Yeah, I'm in general, the inflation in the pet economy for the past several years has actually outpaced inflation in the rest of the economy, uh, particularly on the service side, particularly on the veterinary side. Um, and for several years, there's also really high on the pet food side, but that's moderated this year. Um, so pet parents are looking at these dynamics and saying, wow, there may be a 10% increase in the cost of having a cat this year, a 7% increase in the cost of owning a dog this year. You know, what are some ways that I can be a little bit more frugal while still prioritizing my pets? Um, but when you add in these other things like tariffs, um, yeah, there is definitely some concern that that's going to, uh, push them over the edge so to speak in terms of the cost that they're going to have to eat.