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Rover Profile: Pandemic Layoffs, Business Model, and Current Status

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The profile

Rover, the Seattle pet-sitting and dog-walking marketplace, was approved on April 15, 2020 for a Paycheck Protection Program loan of $8,123,540, reporting 220 jobs. The SBA lists the loan as paid in full on August 21, 2021 and records no forgiveness. A year into the pandemic Rover's quarterly revenue was down 28 percent, and four years later Blackstone bought the company for about $2.3 billion in cash.

  • Category: pet-care marketplace
  • Pandemic-layoff role: Deepest-cut ranking company
  • Last updated: 2026-09-25

Founders, executives and investors

Rover was founded in 2011 and is based in Seattle. Aaron Easterly, a co-founder, was chief executive in 2021 and when the sale to Blackstone closed in 2024; Tracy Knox was chief financial officer in 2021. Rover's 2021 results were issued in the name of A Place for Rover, Inc.

On February 10, 2021 Rover agreed to merge with Nebula Caravel Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by the San Francisco private equity firm True Wind Capital. The deal valued Rover at an enterprise value of about $1.35 billion. The listed company, Rover Group, Inc., traded on Nasdaq until the Blackstone sale.

Business before the pandemic

Rover connects pet owners with sitters, walkers and other providers who offer overnight services, such as boarding and in-home sitting, and daytime services, such as doggy daycare, dog walking, drop-in visits and grooming. In 2021 it said more than 500,000 providers across North America and Europe used the platform. Easterly tied its recovery to owners who "resume traveling and return to work."

What the pandemic changed

The PPP record names the borrower "A Place for Rover/Rover," at a Seattle office address. The whole $8,123,540 was reported as payroll, about $36,900 for each of the 220 jobs reported; Silicon Valley Bridge Bank is listed as the originating lender. The record gives the business type as "Sole Proprietorship."

Rover's results for the first quarter of 2021 show what a year of the pandemic had done. Against the first quarter of 2020, revenue was $12.2 million against $17.0 million, bookings about 643,000 against about 925,000, and gross bookings value $64.7 million against $86.8 million. The net loss narrowed to $10.6 million from $20.5 million. The cost of acquiring a new booking fell to $7 from $39.

"In the first quarter and continuing into May, we have seen an uptick in both Gross Bookings Value (GBV) and bookings as COVID vaccines roll out," Easterly said. Rover reported that the last week of March 2021 was its busiest week for new bookings since the week before Christmas 2019, and that puppies made up 38 percent more of new pet profiles than in the first quarter of 2019. A Rover survey published in January 2021 found that 49 percent of Americans said they had got a new dog during the pandemic. The results release called the "pandemic puppy" boom "a real phenomenon."

Under Blackstone

The sale to funds affiliated with Blackstone was announced on November 29, 2023, and Rover stockholders approved it on February 22, 2024. The deal closed on February 27, 2024: stockholders received $11.00 in cash per share, and Rover's stock stopped trading and was delisted from Nasdaq. "The closing of this transaction is an important milestone in Rover's history and marks the start of the next chapter in our story," Easterly said in the release.

Sources

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