AlgoGroup raises $1 million seed funding

AlgoGroup has raised funds from FoundFast and Primest Capital, who co-led the seed round alongside angel investors, including serial entrepreneur Thomas Hill. 

Founded in 2023, AlgoGroup aims to address a “growing market” for emerging pet brands that have found it difficult to penetrate an “increasingly specialized” distribution landscape. 

“Our strategy came about when we saw a significant increase in the creation of boutique pet brands, some of whom were gaining traction against more established, mass-market pet products in our original market of Hong Kong,” says Founder Chris Fung, who was financing the company until this fundraising round. 

“There was a common pain point amongst these emerging brands: they were underserved by traditional distributors and lacked resources and know-how to efficiently operate e-commerce marketplaces and scale their brands online,” Fung adds.

AlgoGroup offers a tech-enabled pet brand platform for emerging brand owners while equipping them with market intelligence, efficient access and exit, or co-ownership opportunities.  

Fund deployment plans

Commenting on the company’s future, Fung says their vision is to build “a digital ‘House of Brands’ in the pet sector” through a strategy that identifies, validates and integrates emerging pet brands using e-commerce data and technology. “In the most immediate term, we will be taking proceeds of the fundraiser to invest in digital distribution infrastructure,” he adds.

“This infrastructure will both democratize access for emerging brands and also help us in our validation process of new brand concepts.”

Fung explains that brands will gain access through “launch programs,” which deliver market intelligence and access to Algo’s active markets. 

International footprint

With the fresh investment, the start-up is also plotting its international growth by creating similar launch programs for pet brands in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and the UK. 

In the UK, AlgoGroup has entered a financing partnership with pet food brand Woofs, which went through an earlier iteration of the former’s launch program.