PET Food Processing - October 2019 - 64

ACCELERATORS

Innovation Prize program alongside Active Capital, a
third-party firm providing education, consulting and
event-focused support to the entrepreneurial community. The subsidiary is run by people working in various departments of Purina, including finance, marketing and the legal team.
Purina's Pet Care Innovation Program also offers
webinars, business development and networking events
across the US year-round to support emerging pet
industry companies.

Leap Venture Studio & Kinship
Leap Venture Studio is a startup accelerator sponsored
by Mars Petcare's Kinship division and Michelson
Found Animals, and supported by Los Angeles-based
consulting company R/GA. It identifies budding pet care
companies with innovative ideas utilizing science and
technology, connecting them
with award-winning strategists, technologists and designers. The program, which
began in 2018, selects six to
eight of these businesses from
a pool of applicants to participate each year.
The 12-week program begins in spring and ends in
May. At the end of the program, each company pitches
their brand to investors,
industry leaders and the local startup community in
Los Angeles. After the pitch,
companies may receive up to
$200,000 in investments to
further grow their brand. The
program is currently accepting applications for its 2020
cohort, which will be announced in December 2019.
Six companies were chosen to participate in Leap
Venture Studio's 2019 cohort, including three pet food
and treat companies - Jiminy's, Smalls and Shameless
Pets - and one hemp-infused pet supplement brand,

Accelerator
programs
often provide
financial
support,
as well as
network
exposure, to
participating
companies.

PET FOOD PROCESSING | 2019 | www.petfoodprocessing.net

Pet Releaf. During the program, Jiminy's worked on a
complete-and-balanced, sustainable and hypoallergenic
dog food formulated with insect protein. Smalls continued developing its brand of human-grade cat foods
that offer ingredient transparency. Shameless Pets,
which also participated in the Pet Care Innovation Prize,
continued its focus on developing dog treats from
upcycled ingredients.
Leap Venture Studio also provides resources to pet
industry companies through Leap Venture Academy,
which began in May 2019. The Academy offers continuous development through in-person and online courses,
meetings, webinars, bootcamps and other resources.
Mars established Kinship Partners, LLC, under its
Petcare division this year as a coalition built to provide
emerging pet industry companies with exclusive access to data, science and technology to drive innovation and growth. Kinship supports companies in three
areas: companion animal healthcare, pet nutrition and
science-based pet care products. Leap Venture Studio is
one of the resources Kinship companies have access to.
Kinship operates six consumer businesses across the
pet care industry, from overall health and wellness to
nutrition and veterinary care. Puppo, for example, is a
platform where dog owners can create customized nutrition for their pets by answering a series of questions,
which are delivered direct-to-consumer on a subscription basis. In addition, Kinship supports Pet Plate, Wild
Earth, Smalls and Jiminy's, all of which were participants
in Leap Venture Studio's 2018 and 2019 cohorts.

Factory
With $250 million in investable capital, Factory LLC is
an accelerator program for brands across a wide range
of industries, including pet treats. Located in a renovated Bethlehem Steel Corp. factory built in 1940 in
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Factory provides these brands
with the collective wisdom of a robust team of consumer
packaged goods professionals.
Factory was founded by Rich Thompson, an experienced business mogul with a knack for creating enterprise value and a veteran of the pet food and treat industry himself. In 2001, Thompson teamed up with a private
equity investor to purchase Meow Mix from Nestlé S.A.

http://www.petfoodprocessing.net

PET Food Processing - October 2019

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