The popularity of pets has been on a rise in India for some time in line with global trends. With a rising number of people who consider themselves pet parents, rather than owners, and who regard their dogs and cats as part of their family, there has also been a rise in demand for premium products that ensure pets’ overall wellbeing beyond just basic necessities. Manaall Maniyar, who’s a canine nutritionist and the founder and CEO of TailBlaze was one such pet parent, who noticed a gap in the market when his pet dog Einstein was going through health issues. He realized that most nutrition products for dogs contain an excess of carbohydrates, causing issues like obesity, and even cancer among dogs. This inspired him to found TailBlaze, which manufactures nutrition products for dogs that are high in protein, and low in carbohydrate content.
TailBlaze has come a long way since its founding in 2022. The company has won six national, and two international awards. TailBlaze also boasts of an in-house R&D, and manufacturing facility, process trademarks such as FreshTail technology, and a concept-to-product transformation within 48 hours.
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In an exclusive interview with The American Bazaar, Maniyar discussed his journey as both a pet lover, and a startup founder. He shared his insights about the pet industry, his present and future plans for TailBlaze, his strategies as a startup founder, and most importantly, about Einstein, the dog who started it all.
Einstein first came into Maniyar’s life in 2020, a few days before the COVID-19 lockdown started, and they became super close. However, the dog developed arthritis in his hind legs, as well as obesity, leading to concerns despite feeding him the best products recommended by veterinary doctors. Maniyar then did some research and found out the problem lay with the pet food industry. “So if you look at this industry and the products, there is a dry dog food, which sells the most. It is called kibble. Now, kibbles were introduced during World War Two, when there was a meat shortage across the globe. So they thought, okay, whatever meat byproducts like bones and liver and other parts which are not sellable for humans, let’s heat it and give it to dogs till the war ends, you know. However, that didn’t happen, and kibble is now a $200 billion industry. Kibbles have 45 to 55% carbohydrates, and that is killing dogs,” he said. He elaborated that dogs aren’t really equipped to digest much carbohydrate since they’ve evolved from wolves, unlike humans, who have evolved from apes. Maniyar decided to study canine nutrition, and build TailBlaze, leaving his job and the other startup he was building to do so.
Maniyar also talked about the rise in popularity of pets in India, and cited statistics that claimed the numbers became more than double from 18 million in 2019, to 45 million in present times. According to him, people who adopt pets are mostly from millennial and GenZ demographics, particularly couples with double income and no kids. He also mentioned a rising number of GenZ individuals preferred having “pet babies” to human babies. He also mentioned the increasing acceptance towards the LGBTQ community as a factor, since members of that community often chose to adopt “pet babies.” In addition, Maniyar also mentioned other factors including the attention pets often gather and their potential to be “viral,” as well as the rise in mental health issues, which pets can help with by providing companionship. Maniyar stated that India was following in the footsteps of countries like the U.S. and China. He cited statistics saying China would, by 2030 have twice as many pet babies than human babies, and that India was going in the same direction.
Maniyar also elaborated on TailBlaze’s products. He stated that kibble contains a lot of carbohydrate because they are made from byproducts, with flour starch being used to bind them together, in a process called extrusion. Extrusion binds the material together at a high temperature, removing nutrients in the process. “We don’t use byproducts in Tailblaze,” Maniyar said. “We use fresh meat, and farm fresh veggies. Protein content in our food is more than 40% any variant due to any variety, because protein is the main fuel of dogs If you look at our food table, it’s all fresh. No chemicals, no preservatives, no synthetics, just high palatability. Low carbs, high protein, all-natural ingredients.”
On being asked whether there were plans to expand to areas other than nutrition–like pet grooming, Maniyar said that the current focus was on nutrition. “The problem in this food industry is massive for us right now, like 1.5 million dogs dying early, and the same for cats. So currently we are focusing on nutrition products. Our aim is to actually build a complete ecosystem of products going forward, but our focus is going to be on longevity,” he said. He then added, “In the future, you might see a drug, an Ayurvedic drug, from us, which actually increases the life of dogs by three to four years. We are actually currently working on it. We’ll be playing for the next three to five years around this food range which includes your food treats, drugs, supplements and all these things. And we’ll see how the journey was and how the ecosystem works. And then we’ll think about any product, if it adds value to the lives of dogs, then we’ll be open to explore it. But our whole idea is to make dogs live happier, healthier and longer.”
Maniyar also stated that most pet nutrition companies get their products from the same vendors. “We are one of the two companies in India which is completely vertically integrated. We own our own formulations, our manufacturing. Because we have that province of manufacturing understanding. We have a team of scientists,” he said.
When asked about the marketing strategy for TailBlaze, Maniyar said that he doesn’t promote the company that much, rather the company relies on the pet parent community to get the word around. “We are very, very targeted,” he said. “We know whom to target. We don’t target pet owners. We target pet parents. We don’t target pet owners who only feed pets kibbles, and keep them for the sake of it. So I think content, the product itself, the community and very, very targeted marketing, is what keeps us thriving and growing.”
Maniyar also discussed funding plans for the startup. “So we are actually currently raising our VC round funding with a lot of interest from us angel investors. There are at least 15 angel investors from the United States who really want to invest in us. We are evaluating that. But we are also open to exploring some family offices or venture capitalists in the United States. We already have two VCs in India who have given us soft commitments,” he said.
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Maniyar also commented on the evolution of the pet industry, and his predictions for its future. He mentioned that people began spending a lot more time with pets during COVID times, and that led to increasing humanization of pets. “If you look at fresh food as an industry in India, it is growing by the year. People are buying pet insurances. People are going on vacations with their pets. I live in Bangalore. 90% of the resorts around Bangalore are now pet friendly. There are more pet friendly cafes and restaurants in Bangalore than ever. There are more than 400 pet specialized stores.” Due to this, there has been large-scale premiumization of the pet industry. Maniyar believes that personalization and prioritization would be the next steps for pet products. He states that TailBlaze is building towards personalization for different dog breeds. He also believes that the amount spent on pets would soon be very high as people gain more disposable income, and continue to have an emotional attachment towards pets.
Maniyar also mentioned that while TailBlaze wants to be “in every nook and corner of the globe,” currently the focus is on India. However, he also plans to take lessons from the U.S. playbook. He also stated that TailBlaze currently had a pre-money valuation of around 20 crore Indian rupees ($2.3 million).