Diana Pet Food is increasing its share in Yummypets, a social network for pet owners. The initial investment in the online pet community took place in 2016. Diana provides products and services to improve pet food palatability, pet health and pet food protection, and develops scent & care solutions for the pet care market.

With the phenomenon of ‘pet parenting’, pets have become full family members in many households. Many of today’s pet parents project their own human wishes and needs onto their pets. They expect to find products and services for their pets that are similar to those available to them. Consequently, the use of digital channels by dog and cat owners has become more and more popular and thus pet food has become an integral part of current digital & technological trends. In particular, millennials (defined as those born between 1980 and 2000) are very active on social media. For example, 55 percent of them follow at least one pet on social media.

Yummypets, created in 2012, now unites over one million pet lovers and social media profiles on its website that come from all over the world. Currently it attracts 100 million pages views per year. There have been three million pictures posted to date, and almost 60 percent of the traffic is generated by mobile applications.

After its initial investment in 2016, Diana Pet Food has decided to increase its participation in Yummypets. The value of Diana’s investment has not been disclosed. The two founders of Yummypets remain shareholders in the company. 

Investment aims to mutually benefit Diane and Yummypets 

Diana Pet Food has ambitions for Yummypets. While its current presence focuses on Europe, Yummypets aims to expand internationally, and will explore the North American pet market and then South American and Asian markets. It will offer stakeholders a platform for hosting digital applications that are targeted at pet owners.

“The support of Diana Pet Food will help us to structure our international expansion, accelerate our membership acquisition strategy and support our innovation program,” said Matthieu Glayrouse, CEO of Yummypets, in a press release. 

“Yummypets enables us to propose a wider range of services to our clients. In addition, it offers the opportunity to directly get in touch with end-consumers. It will allow us to test larger scale innovative solutions for the stakeholders in the pet market. This offer will complete Panelis, our pet-friendly expert measurement center, which provides insight into pets’ preferences and behaviors,” added Bertrand de Launay, CEO of Diana Pet Food.