This article was published on June 4, 2025, at 4:38 p.m. on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove site.
Connecting the Dots, which provides child care services, will acquire the pet care platform DogMate. Connecting the Dots is a venture company that gained recognition for receiving investments from Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance's corporate venture capital (CVC) division, HGI Initiative. With this acquisition of DogMate, the company is expected to officially enter the pet care market.
On the 4th, according to the venture investment industry, Connecting the Dots will participate in a third-party allocation of new shares from DogMate. Since DogMate is undergoing corporate rehabilitation procedures, all previously issued common and preferred shares will be cancelled without consideration. As a result, Connecting the Dots will secure management rights over DogMate.
DogMate is a pet care platform startup established in 2015. It launched a visiting pet sitter service where sitters go to customers' homes and a home service where customers can leave their pets with sitters directly. The types of services are broadly divided into 'one-night care,' where pets can stay overnight at the sitter's home, and 'day care,' where pets are left for hourly care. According to the company, DogMate has a cumulative total of 229,953 pet sitting instances, 46,829 pets cared for, and approximately 59,066 pet sitter applicants.
The company gained recognition in the venture capital (VC) industry during its Series A investment round in 2020. At that time, global investment firm Knollwood Investment Advisory, which invested in North American pet care services such as Rover and Chewy, as well as Strong Ventures and NAU IB Capital, provided funding. GS Retail, which acquired private equity fund operators IMM Private Equity and Pet Friends, also participated as a new investor, identifying the pet business as a new growth engine.
Connecting the Dots, which operates a child care platform, acquired DogMate as the pet market is rapidly growing. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the domestic pet market is projected to grow from 8 trillion won in 2022 to 15 trillion won by 2027 and reach 20 trillion won by 2032. Earlier this year, Connecting the Dots was selected as an entrusted operator for a pet theme park, marking its entry into the pet business.
Connecting the Dots received its first investment from HGI Initiative about six months after its establishment in 2017. In the subsequent Series B round, which was sized at 16 billion won, new investors included LG Uplus, Kyobo Securities, Woongjin Construction, and Smart Study Ventures. At that time, the post-valuation was set at approximately 100 billion won, which is over 50 times the level at the time of the first investment raise.