Pets of Paradise: End-to-End Fundraising Close
Identified, onboarded, and closed a consumer pet products startup from initial conviction to investor commitment.
Kartik Sodhi
Associate - Private Capital at Finex Hong Kong Limited
From their time as
Investor Relations
Results • 2022 - 2024
Overview
Kartik came across Pets of Paradise while screening startups at the boutique consulting firm. The company sold consumables and wearables for dogs, and what stood out was the founders' clarity on their goals and the market coverage they had already built. He made the internal case to onboard them as a fundraising client, a call he drove on his own conviction.
The Story
Kartik came across Pets of Paradise while screening startups at the boutique consulting firm. The company sold consumables and wearables for dogs, and what stood out was the founders' clarity on their goals and the market coverage they had already built. He made the internal case to onboard them as a fundraising client, a call he drove on his own conviction.
Once onboarded, he coordinated with the firm's marketing team and third-party vendors to refresh the startup's brand presence across paid promotions and social media, giving investors a cleaner first impression before outreach began.
In parallel, he worked directly with the founders to prepare them for investor Q&A, coaching them on how to answer the questions HNIs typically ask about product, traction, and market size. This was not a passive handoff; he ran the preparation sessions himself.
For investor matching, he used LinkedIn and the firm's existing investor database to identify HNIs with prior exposure to consumer or pet-adjacent categories. He then set up one-on-one calls between each investor and the founders, managing the sequencing and follow-through.
The process ran over roughly two to three months from onboarding to close. Two investors committed, and the round closed at 75 lakhs.