EscoutMe, through its North American subsidiary, and San Francisco-based Wag Labs Inc. sign an agreement for more than $ 3,200,000 of a modified version of the ESCOUT device manufactured by the startup shared by Up Catalonia.
ESCOUT (www.escout.me) is a lockable box (Keylock Box) anchored to doors and other safe points that holds the key of the property inside. Operated with Smartphone and Bluetooth connection and through application and web service users can give remote access to real estate in an efficient and safe way by managing guests, controlling all activity and much more. The use of the device and the application are mainly focused on the real estate professional being this modified version suitable for use in the growing sharing economy.
WAG (www.wagwalking.com) offers pet rides to over-occupied or hard-working homeowners through an online software and application offering customers an on-demand service experience. Wag was the fastest growing American startup in Silicon Valley in its first year of operations. Between 2014 and 2016, it successfully completed 3 rounds of financing, obtaining a total of $ 9 million from investors such as Freestyle Capital, CrunchFund, Greylock, Ludlow Ventures, RRE Ventures, Slow Ventures, Social Leverage and Structure Capital (Crunchbase).
In March of this year 2017, Wag has closed a new round of B-series funding by obtaining $ 19 million from Sherpa Capital (www.sherpa.com) and General Catalyst (www.generalcatalyst.com) to fund the Expansion to new markets in which the use of Escout will have its protagonism (Techcrunch).
Both companies have agreed to work together on the integration of their platforms in such a way that the reservation system and access authorization can be completely automated by technologically improving the experience of WAG customers. WAG currently delivers thousands of analog devices per month to new customers which will gradually be replaced by Escout electronic devices. The agreement also foresees the obtaining of exclusivity by WAG in the use of the device in the market of the walks of pets.
The partners have underlined the value and benefits of this contract as for Escout is a first large-scale and long-term contract as the first step in entering the market of the sharing economy, while for WAG is to carry Escout technology To its clients within its strategy of expanding its activities globally.