SoftBank sells its stake in dog-walking app Wag Labs as startup lays off staff
Nickie Louise
Posted On December 9, 2019
About two years ago, we wrote about Wag Labs when the dog-walking app mistakenly exposed home addresses and lockbox codes of its users. The startup has gone through many ups and downs since then. Now, Japanese giant SoftBank, is selling back its nearly 50% stake in Wag Labs Inc, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. This is another disappointing investment for SoftBank after Uber and WeWork.
The amount of the investment is still unclear but it was reportedly below the $650 million valuation Wag earned when SoftBank first invested nearly two years ago, according to the Journal. “We are amicably parting ways with SoftBank and SoftBank will no longer have Board representation,” Wag CEO Garrett Smallwood said in the internal memo to employees. “We thank the Vision Fund for their support in the company to date.”
Wag Labs was founded in 2014 by Jason Meltzer and Joshua Viner. The company has raised a total of $8.9 million in funding from 15 investors. Wag! is the #1 dog walking app to book a dog walker on-demand, or at your convenience. Wag is a mobile application used to instantly find trusted and certified dog walkers. It helps dog owners to experience every step of their dog’s walk through text updates, live GPS tracking, pee/poo notifications, and photo report cards.
