From IIM to a pet caring empire: How Vineet Khanna built Supertails into a ₹500 cr brand
Pet parenting in India is harder than it should be.” Vineet Khanna, co-founder of pet support platform Supertails, leans back in his chair and gives two examples that illustrate the lack of an ecosystem and low awareness about pets and pet parenting that make it so difficult.Two girls tele-consulted the Supertails vet, saying their newly acquired cat was making “a strange sound”. The call switched to video, but the cat, unaware of the attention, took some time before she made the mysterious sounds that had her minders worried.
Turns out that the girls had misinterpreted the sound—the pet was purring, happy to have a new toy.On another occasion, someone called to say that he had started giving his cat packaged food but it was looking unhappy. On further inquiry, he said he was giving the cat “two pills (of kibbles) in the morning and two pills in the evening”—on an average, a cat could be given half a cup of kibble twice a day.
“The poor pet was starving,” says Khanna.Started in May 2021 by Khanna, Varun Sadana and Aman Tekriwal, Supertails caters to over 700,000 pet parents, delivering food, healthcare, medicines and accessories. Besides, there are online consultations, five clinics (and 10 upcoming) in Bengaluru, and home services (also in Bengaluru).
Backed by over 100 veterinarians, more than 350 employees, around 30,000 products and community-led storytelling (they send handwritten notes and customised pet tags to customers), the Bengaluru-headquartered Supertails is a roughly ₹500-crore brand.Khanna says cats (or cat owners) are more loyal as customers than dogs. “The moment we have at least three data points of a pet, their retention with us increases by 50%,” he adds.At the Taj Santacruz near Terminal One of the
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