Allflex started by radio tagging cows then it was bought for over $1 billion by investment funds seeing the need for disease control of livestock and other opportunities for electronics in and on animals. They then supported its acquisitions at up to the $250 million level and this is ongoing. The result is a multi-billion dollar corporation.
However until recently the pet wearables side has been small and the province of tiny suppliers. No longer. So what is going on?
On Thursday 1 September BBC World Television delved deeper by interviewing the expert, Dr Peter Harrop Chairman of analysts IDTechEx and author of the new report, Wearable Technology for Animals 2017-2027: Technologies, Markets, Forecasts.
They had a laugh about the dotty phase such as electronic dog collars claiming to translate the grunts and barks into English and dog headlights.
However, Harrop confirmed that the pet smart wearable is now at a tipping point. For example in electronic dog collars, Tagg was bought by Whistle last year and this year Whistle has been bought by the largest petfood and petcare company in the world Mars with the giant Nestle Purina reportedly also bidding. Harrop advised that this is not because they have the frustrated dream of those trying to sell billions of fitness bands and smart watches for humans and struggling at one hundredths of that figure.
No. The petcare giants see tracker, fitness and healthcare wearables for pets leveraging their existing products and services to the sector such as petfood and chains of vetinarian centres.
IDTechEx sees animal wearable technology and associated services more than doubling to $2.9 billion in 2027. The analyst sees many gaps in the market can be exploited to take it much higher.
We already have everything from radio tagging threatened species and livestock to racing pigeons, dogs and cats but few have even health monitoring.
Racehorse wearable electronics is particularly sophisticated with both diagnostics and drug delivery. Other animals will benefit later from this and the market will grow as cleverer, more affordable systems arrive for treatment not just diagnostics.
Indeed, it was noted that insurance companies are now backing animal as well as human fitness wearables in a win win situation for both wearer and insurer.
There is even legal push as with the legal requirement that all dogs in New Zealand have RFID tags under the skin in case they bring infection to farms. Better technology such as fit-and-forget energy harvesting instead of batteries is in prospect. It will sometimes justify premium pricing. The acquisitions in petcare smart wearables are ongoing and justifiable as are those in the wider animal wearables scene.
