FluentPet, a manufacturer of sound buttons to facilitate better communication through pet owners and their pets – by providing them with sound buttons to record words and phrases – has been selected as the Grand Prize winner in Purina’s 2022 Pet Care Innovation (PCI) Awards which was held at the Global Pet Expo in Florida and ran from March 23-25.
The PCI Award is there to recognise innovative products and services that provide “meaningful solutions” to support the lives of pets. In January of this year companies FluentPet, Bright Planet Pet, QSM Diagnostics and uPetsia were chosen from over 120 companies in the first round and received US$10,000 to scale their businesses. These five companies had partaken in a bootcamp accelerator experience held at Purina’s headquarters earlier this month.
FluentPet was awarded an additional US$10,000 by a panel of judges of investors, industry experts and executives from Purina’s 9 Square Ventures division, which looks to invest in emerging pet care businesses by providing funding.
FluentPet was selected as the winner for being an outstanding company, providing outstanding services and products within the pet industry. The company is fairly new, as it was launched in 2020 with the aim of making learning and communicating easier for pets and their owners and had since received recognition online as videos of pet owners demonstrating to their dogs how to use their sound buttons went viral. FluentPet’s button collection is a language and learning system enabling people to teach their dogs and cats to express themselves by pressing sound-emitting buttons mounted on a board.
“These past few months working with the Purina’s 2022 Class have been an invaluable experience for us and our company,” says CEO Leo Trottier. “We thank everyone who has helped us get here – our researchers, our guides, friends and family. We look forward to working with everyone to continue pushing the boundaries of what interspecies communication is and can be for us and our animal companions.”
Later in the year FluentPet will be launching their newest product line, the FluentPet Connect, which gives users the ability to receive texts from their dogs or cats, tracking their progress in real-time. It represents the next phase in the overall aim of bridging the communication gap.
For more information on FluentPet visit their website, HERE.
