Barkly plans to hire after closing seed round

On-demand dog walking startup Barkly Pets has new funding, and is planning to grow its team, according to cofounder David Comiskey.

The D.C.-based company (and 2017 realLIST honoree) closed a $605,000 seed round, led by Newark Venture Partners. New York Angels also participated.

Comiskey said the startup is planning to build out its product with the new funding.

“We plan to use the money to continue to build the best platform out there for dog owners to discover highly trained dog walkers in their area,” he said. “This means we’ll be directing the funds toward product development and building the tools and ecosystem to foster walker success.”

That will mean adding members to the startup’s six-person team.

“I would encourage people to check out our careers page. There will be several new jobs posted there over the coming weeks,” Comiskey said.

As Barkly looks to grow in a competitive space, Comiskey said the team is focusing on creating a relationship between walkers and pet owners. Barkly recently added a feature where owners can choose preferred walkers. Another feature displays info about walkers in a given area. The app also sends notifications when pets are picked up and dropped off, and provides a “report card” about the walk complete with route and pics.

Since launching in Baltimore and D.C. in 2015, Barkly expanded to Philly and New York.