ITV agrees to invest in dog products company PitPat
ITV to invest up to £4m in pet food and monitoring company PitPat in broadcaster’s latest ‘media for equity’ deal
- ITV’s media for equity investment fund has also invested in what3words
- PitPat’s products allow dog owners to track their pets’ calorie intake
A Cambridge pet health company becomes the second company this year to transfer an equity stake to broadcaster ITV in exchange for advertising.
ITV’s media for equity investment fund, Adventures Invest, will subscribe for £3 million PitPat shares, with an option for a further £1 million.
In return, the company will promote its products and services through the broadcasting giant’s channels and on-demand subscription service ITVX.
Dog products company PitPat receives investment from ITV in exchange for free advertising on broadcasting giant’s channels and on-demand subscription service ITVX
PitPat’s products include collar-worn trackers and activity monitors that help dog owners track their pets’ calorie intake, movements, and location without requiring a subscription.
ITV said the agreement will enable PitPat to ‘build brand awareness in the mass market by bringing the brand to millions of viewers’.
Andy Nowell, PitPat’s founder and CEO, said ITV’s “extensive viewership and strategic media expertise” will enable the company to “reach a nation of dog lovers and drive significant awareness of the category, cementing PitPat as the go-to brand for pet parents.”
Sheena Amin, Director of ITV AdVentures, added: ‘PitPat is at a major turning point in its scale journey, creating a market-leading product for both dog activity monitors and GPS trackers.
“We know that ITV viewers rank highly as pet owners, and I am confident we can help raise awareness of GPS pet tracker categories while also putting PitPat on the map.”
ITV struck a similar deal with architectural technology firm Resi in March, subscribing to £1 million of convertible loan notes in the group, along with an option for two additional tranches worth £1 million each.
The company’s first-ever media deal for shares came two years ago with a £2 million investment in What3words, the groundbreaking app that converts GPS coordinates into three-word codes.
Since then, Adventures Invest has forged ties with nutritional supplement start-up Feel, utility pricing service Ismybillfair.com, menswear brands Spoke and online car marketplace Carwow.
Channel 4’s media for equity fund has also invested in Carwow and What3words, as well as social media service Pinterest and crowdfunding platform Crowdcube.
ITV shares rose just 0.2 percent to 74.7 pence on Tuesday morning and fell about 42 percent over the past two years amid more challenging economic conditions.
Earlier this month, the FTSE 100 group announced that advertising revenue fell 10 percent year-on-year in the first three months of 2023, while total revenue fell faster than expected.
However, CEO Carolyn McCall said the company is “looking forward” to the third quarter when it expects the next series of Love Island and the Rugby World Cup to draw large audiences.