UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
(Mark One)
| ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 | |||||
For the fiscal year ended December 31 , 2022
OR
| TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 | |||||
For the transition period from to
Commission file number: 001-39774
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
| (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) | ||||
| (Address of Principal Executive Offices) | (Zip Code) | ||||
(888 ) 453-7889
Registrant's telephone number, including area code
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
| Title of each class | Trading Symbol(s) | Name of each exchange on which registered | ||||||
$0.0001 per share | ||||||||
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ¨ No x
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ¨ No x
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports); and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes x No ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).Yes x No ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
| Large accelerated filer | ¨ | ☒ | |||||||||
| Non-accelerated filer | ¨ | Smaller reporting company | |||||||||
| Emerging growth company | |||||||||||
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐
If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements
of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ¨
Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant
to §240.10D-1(b). ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No x
As of June 30, 2022, the aggregate market value of the voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant, based on the closing sales price for the registrant’s Class A common stock as reported on Nasdaq, was approximately $451.0 million. Shares of common stock beneficially owned by each executive officer and director of the registrant and their affiliated stockholders have been excluded in that such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.
As of March 3, 2023, the registrant had 185,045,456 shares of Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, outstanding.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Signatures | ||||||||
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Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This Annual Report on Form 10-K of Rover Group, Inc. (the “Company,” “Rover,” “we,” “us” or “our”) contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or our future financial or operating performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “might,” “possible,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “consider,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans or intentions. Forward-looking statements contained in this report include, but are not limited to, statements about:
•general macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions, including other health-related events, political instability, sustained levels of increased inflation, rising interest rates, significant U.S. dollar and foreign currency fluctuations, lower consumer confidence, depressed consumer spending, monetary and fiscal policy changes, any failure to lift the U.S. debt ceiling, stock market volatility, and geopolitical conflicts and economic downturns, and their impact on consumer spending patterns, demand for and pricing on our platform, and our business, operating results and financial condition;
•the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including as a result of new strains or variants of the virus and non-COVID illnesses that may result from reduced immunity caused by social distancing during the pandemic, and other geopolitical events like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on customer demand and our business, key business metrics, operating results and financial condition and on our ability to forecast our financial and operating results, the travel industry, travel trends, and the global economy generally;
•our expectations about, our ability to successfully defend, and the outcome of, any known and unknown litigation and regulatory proceedings, including with respect to the classification of pet care providers on our platform, and the potential impact on our business operations and financial performance if we are not successful or resulting from potential changes to our business practices and platform to bolster the classification of pet care providers who use the Rover platform as independent contractors;
•our expectations regarding our future operating and financial performance, including bookings, gross booking value, average booking value, booking mix, revenue and expenses;
•our ability to retain existing and acquire new pet parents and pet care providers;
•the strength of our network, effectiveness of our technology, and quality of the offerings provided through our platform;
•our opportunities and strategies for growth, including investments, partnerships, distribution channels, acquisitions and international markets;
•our offering expansion initiatives and market acceptance thereof, and the effect of these investments on our results of operations;
•the success of our marketing strategies and investments;
•our anticipated investments in new products and offerings, and the effect of these investments on our results of operations;
•our ability to successfully close and integrate acquisitions into our operations;
•our ability to introduce new products and offerings and enhance existing products and offerings;
•our ability to match pet parents with high quality and well-priced offerings;
•our assessment of and strategies to compete with existing and new competitors in existing and new markets and offerings;
•our assessment of our trust and safety practices;
•our ability to maintain the security and availability of our platform;
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•our ability to accurately and effectively use data and engage in predictive analytics;
•our ability to attract and retain talent and the effectiveness of our compensation strategies and leadership;
•seasonal fluctuations in bookings, gross bookings value, average booking value, revenue, marketing, operating expenses, net income (loss), and Adjusted EBITDA;
•our future capital requirements and sources and uses of cash;
•the sufficiency of our cash, cash equivalents, and investments to meet our liquidity needs;
•changes in applicable laws or regulations, including with respect to the classification of pet care providers on our platform, taxation, privacy, data protection and information security;
•our ability to stay in compliance with laws and regulations, including with respect to the classification of pet care providers on our platform, taxation, privacy, data protection and information security, that currently apply or may become applicable to our business both in the United States and internationally and our expectations regarding the effects of various existing and developing laws and restrictions that relate to our business;
•the increased expenses associated with being a public company;
•our ability to maintain and protect our brand;
•our ability to effectively manage our growth and maintain our corporate culture;
•our ability to identify, recruit, and retain skilled personnel, including key members of senior management;
•our ability to effectively manage our exposure to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates;
•our current plans, considerations, expectations and determinations regarding future compensation programs; and
•other risks and uncertainties described under Part II. Item 1A of this report titled “Risk Factors.”
We caution you that the foregoing list does not contain all of the forward-looking statements made in this report.
You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. We have based the forward-looking statements contained in this report primarily on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects. The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to risks, uncertainties and other important factors, including those described under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this report. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time and it is not possible for us to predict all risks and uncertainties that could have an impact on the forward-looking statements contained in this report. We cannot assure you that the results, events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur, and actual results, events or circumstances could differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.
Neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of any of these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements made in this report relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made available. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this report to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this report or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Our forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, joint ventures or investments we may make.
In addition, statements that “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this report, and while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements.
You should read this report, and the documents that we reference in this report and have filed as exhibits to this report, completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. We qualify all of the forward-looking statements in this report by these cautionary statements.
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Risk Factors Summary
Our business is subject to numerous risks. The following is a summary of the principal risks we face that could materially adversely affect our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects, all of which are more fully described in the section of this report titled “Risk Factors.” This summary is not complete and the risks summarized below are not the only risks we face. You should review and consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described in more detail in “Risk Factors,” and should not rely upon the following as an exhaustive summary of the material risks facing our business.
Risks Related to our Business and Industry
•Any further and continued decline or disruption in the travel and pet care services industries or an economic downturn resulting from current or future pandemics or other health-related events, sustained levels of increased inflation, rising interest rates, any failure to lift the U.S. debt ceiling, lower consumer confidence, depressed consumer spending, geopolitical instability or economic uncertainty or recession, could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
•We have incurred net losses in each year since inception and may not be able to achieve or sustain annual profitability.
•The COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of actions to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic have materially adversely impacted and may continue to materially adversely impact our business, operating results, and financial condition.
•Our revenue may not continue to grow over time and may slow or reverse again in the future.
•Our Adjusted EBITDA may not continue to grow over time and may slow or reverse again in the future.
•Online marketplaces for pet care are still in relatively early stages of growth and if demand for them does not continue to grow, grows slower than expected, or fails to grow as large as expected, our business, financial condition, and operating results could be materially adversely affected.
•Our marketing efforts to help grow the business may not be effective.
•Off-platform bookings and payments have had and may continue to have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
•If we fail to retain existing pet care providers and pet parents on our platform or attract new pet care providers and pet parents to our platform, or if pet care providers fail to provide high-quality offerings, or if pet parents fail to receive high-quality offerings, our business, operating results, and financial condition would be materially adversely affected.
•The success of our platform relies on our matching algorithms and other proprietary technology and any failure to operate and improve our algorithms or to develop other innovative proprietary technology effectively could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and operating results.
•The business and industry in which we participate are highly competitive and we may be unable to compete successfully with our current or future competitors.
•New offerings and initiatives can be costly and if we unsuccessfully pursue such offerings and initiatives, we may fail to grow and our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects would be materially adversely affected.
•Maintaining and enhancing our brand reputation is critical to our growth and negative publicity could damage the Rover brand.
•Actions by pet care providers or pet parents that are criminal, violent, inappropriate, or dangerous, or fraudulent activity, may undermine the safety or the perception of safety of our platform and materially adversely affect our reputation, ability to attract and retain pet care providers and pet parents on our platform, business, operating results and financial condition.
•We may experience significant fluctuations in our operating results and key business metrics, which make it difficult to forecast future results and could cause our stock price to decline.
Risks Related to Regulation and Taxes
•If pet care providers are reclassified as employees under applicable law or new laws are passed causing the reclassification of pet care providers as employees or otherwise adopting employment-like restrictions with regard to pet care providers who use our platform, our business would be materially adversely affected.
•Our business is subject to a variety of laws and regulations, many of which are unsettled and still developing and failure to comply with such laws and regulations could subject us to claims or otherwise materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, or operating results.
•We are subject to regulatory inquiries, claims, lawsuits, investigations, various proceedings and other disputes and face potential liability and expenses for legal claims, which could materially adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
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•Taxing authorities may successfully assert that we have not properly collected, or in the future should collect, sales and use, gross receipts, value added, or similar taxes.
Risks Related to Privacy and Technology
•We have been subject to cybersecurity attacks in the past and anticipate being the target of future attacks. Any actual or perceived breach of security or security incident or privacy or data protection breach or violation could interrupt our operations, harm our brand and reputation and adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition, and operating results.
•Changes in laws or regulations relating to privacy, data protection, or the protection or transfer of data relating to individuals, or any actual or perceived failure by us to comply with such laws and regulations or any other regulations or any other obligations relating to privacy, data protection or the protection or transfer of data relating to individuals, could adversely affect our business.
•Systems defects and failures and resulting interruptions in the availability of our website, mobile applications, or platform could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
•We rely on third-party payment service providers to process payments on our platform. If these third-party payment service providers become unavailable or insolvent or we are subject to increased fees, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
•We rely on mobile operating systems and application marketplaces to make our applications available and if they modify their policies, or if we do not effectively operate with or receive favorable placements within such application marketplaces and maintain high user reviews, our usage or brand recognition could decline and our business, financial results and operating results could be materially adversely affected.
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
•Failure to adequately protect our intellectual property could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
Risks Related to our Operations
•We depend on our highly skilled employees to grow and operate our business and if we are unable to hire, retain, manage and motivate our employees, or if our new employees do not perform as anticipated, we may not be able to grow effectively and our business, financial condition, and operating results could be materially adversely affected.
•Our support function is critical to the success of our platform and any failure, or perceived failure, to provide high-quality service could affect our ability to retain our existing pet care providers and pet parents and attract new ones.
•We may face difficulties as we expand our operations into new local markets in which we have limited or no prior operating experience.
•Our presence outside the United States and any future international expansion strategy will subject us to additional costs and risks and our plans may not be successful.
•The failure to successfully execute and integrate acquisitions could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
Risks Related to Our Financial Reporting and Disclosure
•Because we recognize revenue upon the start of a booked service and not at booking, upticks or downturns in bookings are not immediately reflected in our operating results.
•Our management has limited experience in operating a public company.
•We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting and may identify additional material weaknesses in the future or fail to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting, which may result in material misstatements of our consolidated financial statements or cause us to fail to meet our periodic reporting obligations.
•We may face litigation and other risks as a result of the material weakness in the internal controls of our financial reporting.
Risks Related to Ownership of Class A Common Stock
•The market price of our Class A Common Stock has been, and may continue to be, volatile and may decline.
•Insiders currently have and may continue to possess substantial influence over us, which could limit investors’ ability to affect the outcome of key transactions, including a change of control.
•Our stockholders may experience significant dilution in the future.
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Note Regarding Trademarks and Service Marks
The Rover design logo and the Rover mark appearing in this report are the property of Rover Group, Inc. Trade names, trademarks and service marks of other companies appearing in this report are the property of their respective holders. We have omitted the ® and ™ designations, as applicable, for the trademarks used in this report.
Note Regarding Industry and Market Data
Within this report, we reference information and statistics regarding the travel and pet care industries. We have obtained this information and these statistics from various independent third-party sources, including independent industry publications, reports by market research firms and other independent sources, such as Euromonitor International Limited. Some data and other information contained in this report are also based on management’s estimates and calculations, which are derived from our review and interpretation of internal surveys and independent sources. Data regarding the industries in which we compete and our market position and market share within these industries are inherently imprecise and are subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties beyond our control, but we believe they generally indicate size, position and market share within this industry. While we believe such information is reliable, we have not independently verified any third-party information. While we believe our internal company research and estimates are reliable, such research and estimates have not been verified by any independent source. In addition, assumptions and estimates of our and our industries’ future performance are necessarily subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors. These and other factors could cause our future performance to differ materially from our assumptions and estimates. As a result, you should be aware that market, ranking and other similar industry data included in this report, and estimates and beliefs based on that data, may not be reliable.
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PART I
Item 1. Business.
Overview
Rover exists to give pet parents an alternative to relying on friends and family, neighbors, and commercial providers for pet care. Our online marketplace for pet care aims to match pet parents with pet lovers who provide excellent pet care while earning extra income. Our simple and easy-to-use platform enables pet parents to easily discover the right pet care providers, book services, communicate with providers, as well as read and write reviews. Our platform enables pet care providers to independently set pricing, create a profile, manage bookings, communicate with pet parents, define the terms and delivery of their services, and receive payment, all in a simple and cost-effective way. As used in this section, a booking is defined as a single arrangement between a pet parent and pet care provider on the Rover platform, which can be for a single night or multiple nights for overnight services, or for a single walk/day/drop-in or multiple walks/days/drop-ins for daytime services. We discuss bookings information in more detail in “Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Business Metrics—Bookings.”
A Place for Rover, Inc., a Delaware corporation and, after the merger described in Note 1 - Organization and Description of Business and Note 3 - Reverse Recapitalization, our wholly owned subsidiary (“Legacy Rover”), was incorporated on June 16, 2011. For a full discussion of the general development of our business and information about our legal predecessor, see “Business—Our History” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 filed on March 21, 2022, which section is incorporated herein by reference. During 2022, we introduced virtual dog training through the acquisition of GoodPup, an early-stage company that operates a virtual dog training platform (see Note 4 - Business Combination), and invested in an early-stage service for pet parents that is complementary to our current offerings (see Note 6 - Investments).
Unless the context requires otherwise, the words “Rover,” “we,” “Company,” “us” and “our” refer to Rover Group, Inc. and our wholly-owned subsidiaries.
Our Mission
We believe in the unconditional love of pets, and Rover exists to make it possible for everyone to experience this love in their lives.
Rover breaks down the barriers to loving and trusted pet care so that more people can experience this unconditional love. As pet parents ourselves, we created a community where fellow pet parents can connect with pet care providers who will treat their pets like family. With the Rover platform, we also believe that if we make it easy for everyday pet people to start and grow their own small pet care businesses, we can do more than enable additional income for pet care providers and loving care for pets; we can unlock joy for pets, pet lovers, and pet parents everywhere. Over the years, we have discovered more: Growing Rover has revealed to us the depth and importance of the bonds we share with our pets—and the extraordinary empathy, care, and love that people in our neighborhoods can provide for their communities. Some of the best parts of being on the Rover team are the stories and anecdotes that we hear about the unique bonds between pets, pet parents, and the pet care providers who love and care for them.
The community formed on Rover is at the heart of our business. It includes ordinary neighborhood pet people who, when they step in to care for your pet, reveal themselves to be extraordinary. Our shared love of pets is powerful, inclusive, and magnetic. Pets bring people together and can even give us a sense of belonging and meaning. It is our privilege to be stewards of those connections and relationships.
Our Business
Rover is the world's largest online marketplace for pet care. According to publicly available app reviews and average ratings as of January 2023, we are the world's leading pet services app. We connect pet parents with caring pet care providers who offer overnight services, including boarding and in-home pet sitting, and daytime services, including doggy day care, dog walking, drop-in visits, and dog training. We currently operate in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Sweden, Italy, Germany, Norway, and the Netherlands. Through December 31, 2022, over 4.1 million unique pet parents and over 870,000 pet care providers across North America, the United Kingdom, and Western Europe have booked or provided a service on Rover, enabling millions of moments of joy and play for people and pets.
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For pets and their parents, we believe Rover is a better pet care solution than the existing options of friends and family, neighbors, and commercial service providers. Through Rover, pet parents are able to share individualized care instructions with pet care providers so that their pets receive the best care tailored to their specific needs. Our customer service team supports both pet parents and pet care providers when they need help along the way and has helped build our commitment to trust and safety, which is foundational to our brand. We offer features to facilitate safe, informed, and positive experiences for the people and pets in our community and provide a 24/7 in-house team to support our community if a problem arises during a stay. In the rare instance a service doesn’t go as planned, we offer the Rover Guarantee reimbursement program to assist with certain out-of-pocket costs incurred by parents or pet care providers so that pets can get the care they need. The Rover Guarantee reimburses both pet parents and pet care providers up to $25,000 for costs arising from certain injuries or damages that occur during a service booked and paid through Rover and up to $1 million for costs arising from damage to pet parent property or certain third-party injuries, subject to terms and conditions thereunder. Safety has always been at the heart of what we do. Through it all, we have been guided by our love of pets and belief in the unique human-pet bond.
For pet care providers, our tools help them to easily create a listing on the Rover marketplace as well as schedule and book care, communicate with pet parents, and receive payment. The Rover marketplace allows pet parents to choose and match with pet people who want to earn extra income doing what they love: spending time with pets. We believe that these matches not only enable better care for pets, but also create joy for both parties, and through our simple and easy-to-use platform that enables pet parents to discover, book, pay and review pet care providers online or in our app we seek to radically simplify the logistics of pet care.
We generate substantially all of our revenue from our pet care marketplace platform that connects pet parents and pet care providers. We generally collect service fees from both pet parents and pet care providers. We earn more revenue as more pet parents request and pet care providers accept and complete bookings. We also earn revenue from ancillary sources such as provider onboarding fees, virtual pet training services, affiliate fees via our blog, and sales of products in the Rover Store. We created Rover’s blog in 2014 and have scaled it to become one of the world’s largest pet blogs, reaching over 42 million unique users in 2022.
In support of our mission, we continue to invest in our product and have completed several acquisitions since our inception to help us grow our business and serve more pet parents. We also continue to explore and test new service lines, that we may launch at future dates, and evaluate acquisition and investment opportunities.
Our Services
The figure below describes the services offered on our platform, with gross booking value, or GBV, and average price based on 2022 results. The breakdown of services by percentage of GBV for 2022 was almost identical to the breakdown for 2021. Average prices increased over 2021 levels as discussed in “Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Factors Affecting Our Performance—Service Booking Mix.”
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To find a pet care provider, pet parents can arrange a Meet & Greet with the pet care provider following contact on our platform. Once the pet parent and pet care provider accept the booking request, often following a successful Meet & Greet, the booking is confirmed. Once the service begins, the pet parents can receive regular photos and updates from the pet care provider. Following the service, pet parents have the option to review and/or tip the pet care providers, as well as book for their next stay. Often, new pet parents come to our platform ahead of a planned trip to utilize overnight services, and once they experience the ease that Rover provides, they expand to daytime services as well. We introduced features in the U.S. and Canada that enable the booking of recurring daytime services in 2019 to allow pet parents and pet care providers to set a regular schedule for their services, and in 2021, introduced extended stay billing features that allow pet care providers to charge based on service pick-up and drop-off times.
Seasonality
Our bookings are impacted by seasonal trends. Over the course of the year, we historically experience seasonally high bookings during the third quarter, which then step down slightly during the fourth quarter, and then stay approximately flat during the first quarter before ramping again in the second quarter. We usually experience stronger bookings, particularly for overnight boarding and house sitting services, during the months of June, July, and August, and November and December, which in a typical year coincides with high travel demand related to summer and holiday travel, respectively. This seasonality impacts bookings, GBV, revenue, marketing, and service operations expenses. Bookings can also be impacted by the timing of holidays and other events.
Our Marketplace Creation Strategy
To create this market for pet services, which requires both local network effects and platform network effects, we have developed a local marketplace strategy. In particular, by facilitating successful pet care relationships, demonstrated by the fact that 97% of our reviewed stays have a 5-star rating from inception through December 31, 2022, we drive word-of-mouth growth at the local marketplace level. This drives our brand in combination with efforts such as content marketing and our leading blog for pet lovers.
•New pet parents and pet care providers join Rover organically. Pet parents and pet care providers from neighborhoods covering over 98% of the United States population have signed up with Rover, based on the US Census zip code tabulation areas with booked transactions on the platform as of December 2022. In the year ended December 31, 2022, 42% of new pet parents came to us through word-of-mouth across all our markets. In our largest markets, 52% of new pet parents came to us through word-of-mouth. In addition to paid marketing, we complement word-of-mouth momentum with content to drive awareness of Rover with more pet lovers. Rover’s blog has become one of the world’s largest pet blogs and is available in the local language of all the countries where we operate.
•Our matching algorithm increases customer satisfaction, growing the marketplace. Unlike marketplaces that invest primarily in acquisition marketing to create a flywheel of growing demand and supply, Rover’s matching algorithm is the key to our marketplace creation strategy. Facilitating great matches between pet, parent, and provider is the most important thing we do. Rover engineers, data scientists, and statisticians develop, maintain, and update our algorithms. We use reviews, proximity, browsing, contact, and booking data to predict which pet care providers are most likely to be great matches when pet parents search for providers in our marketplace. The stages of the continued improvement in our matching algorithm are:
◦More bookings lead to more data. With more bookings across a growing pet parent base, we increase the density and diversity of our data from marketplace geographies, adding to our data science asset and improving our ability to facilitate better matches through machine learning.
◦More data leads to better matches. As activity on our platform grows, we build better data density in a geography over time. This leads to better matches. As the data density of pet parents and pet care providers increases in a given geography, pet parents are likely to find the best provider to match their specific needs and in closer proximity. We monitor over a hundred attributes of a booking, including proximity, responsiveness, and likelihood to rebook.
◦Better matches lead to more bookings. Our proprietary Rover algorithm learns to present pet care providers who are most likely to be a good match for a booking, and who are more likely to respond, increasing the likelihood that a pet parent's search turns into a booking.
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•Repeat bookings increase, driving brand awareness and word-of-mouth attraction of more pet parents and pet care providers. As pets and parents have better and better experiences on Rover, they are increasingly more likely to rebook services or try additional service offerings. Increases in loyalty from pet parents also increase word-of-mouth marketing to other pet parents, who then join the platform. These pet parents in turn create even more information that Rover can use to make the experiences of other pets, parents, and pet care providers even better in the future, creating a virtuous cycle. Our brand sits at the nexus of trust and love, and our brand strategy is to earn our place in pet parents’ “circle of trust” for pet care. We do this by establishing Rover as an extension and improvement upon pet care provided by friends and family.
In these ways, improvements in our matching algorithm have compounding, accelerating effects on the ability of our marketplace to scale, which we then leverage to build greater and greater momentum, as illustrated by the figure below.
We complement our organic growth with paid customer acquisition. Our algorithm improves paid marketing efficiency as a local marketplace grows. Once our matching algorithms have enough data to increase our conversion rate and rebooking rate in a market, we accelerate investment in paid customer acquisition. We use predictive analytics to invest in marketing utilizing a marginal cost framework that often results in a one to two-quarter payback period, inclusive of variable costs. Our matching algorithm is a key element of our ability to acquire customers with a high degree of efficiency.
Our Competitive Strengths
As we grow our online pet care marketplace, our competitive strengths relative to other online platforms include:
•Largest number of high-quality pet care providers. Pet care providers are attracted to the Rover platform. As pet parents conduct more transactions on the platform, they create additional booking opportunities for pet care providers. Additional bookings enable pet care providers to make more money and to manage their listings so that the matches they receive are even more targeted to their own preferences. For example, a pet care provider who desires to book only with Husky dogs may find herself able to do that over time as she amasses sufficient reviews and repeat customers, and as the Husky bookings increase. This ability to precisely satisfy the unique preferences of pet care providers is very difficult to replicate and translates to enormous provider satisfaction and advocacy. Pet care providers come to our platform organically and stay with it. For example, once a provider has had a booking on the platform, we find that over 65% of them will receive three or more bookings in their first 12 months on the platform. For those in this group, providers experience above 95% repeat revenue retention on a year-over-year basis.
•Rover algorithm and data scale to make better matches. The scale and breadth of Rover’s pet care provider network, coupled with the evolution of our algorithm, enables us to continuously improve matches on our platform. Instead of just investing in marketing to grow our marketplace, we have focused on matching the needs and preferences of each individual pet parent to the best pet care provider.
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•Multiple network effects. According to publicly available app reviews and user counts as of January 2023, we are the world’s largest online marketplace for pet care services. With our leading scale, we can offer pet parents and pet care providers the benefits of density and diversity in a local marketplace. Pet parents searching for care on Rover can often find providers who live in their neighborhoods, or even—in the case of people in large cities—in their own apartment buildings. They can also find pet care providers who offer a broad diversity of environments, services, availability, capabilities, and price points to meet the unique needs of their pets. Many of these providers will also have dozens, if not hundreds, of reviews and repeat customers. This combination of density, diversity, and quality results in better matches and more positive experiences on our marketplace.
•Strong pet parent loyalty and word-of-mouth growth. In 2022, 1.6 million unique pet parents had a booking on our platform. We define pet parent cohorts by the period in which pet parents first booked on our platform. Of our January 2022 cohort, 60% of new pet parents on Rover rebooked within the first 12 months. Our continuous excellence in facilitating initial matches between pet, parent, and provider translates directly into advantages in our ability to retain pet parents and match them with providers who offer other types of services as well. For example, a new pet parent who books a drop-in visit as a first service on Rover may translate her delight into trials of doggy day care, or dog walking. The number of bookings per repeat customer has grown from 3.7 in year 1 for our January 2013 cohort, to 6.2 in year 1 for our January 2022 cohort.
•The #1 pet services app. We are the world's leading pet services app. The Rover mobile app offers a seamless, all-inclusive experience. Pet parents are able to discover pet care providers, read their profiles, reviews, and other attributes such as repeat client counts, communicate with providers, and book services. Pet care providers are able to create personalized profiles, set pricing, manage bookings, communicate with pet parents, send photos and updates, as well as receive payment. Based on the number of iOS and Android reviews and average ratings as of January 2023, Rover remains the top pet services mobile app.
•Top Tier trust and safety support designed for pet care. Our platform provides trust and safety support to both pet parents and providers through a dedicated team of trust and safety agents that assist pet parents and pet care providers with everything from emergency vet visits to questions about pet behavior. Throughout our history, Rover has invested in empathetic and knowledgeable care for our community.
Our Long-Term Growth Strategy
We aim to build a global brand that stands for excellence in pet care through the pursuit of the following strategies. These individual vectors accelerate each other by driving the entire marketplace with additional cross-sell opportunities and brand and data synergies.
•Attract and delight customers in existing geographies and within existing services. We believe that considerable growth remains within our existing service offerings and geographies. Our cumulative customer volumes represent a tiny fraction of this potential. From inception through December 31, 2022, over four million unique pet parents had booked a service on Rover, which represents approximately 3% of the estimated 137 million pet households in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Western Europe. By continuing to enhance our platform, we make it fast and easy to find a trusted pet care provider in your neighborhood.
•Expand service offerings and pets covered. We plan to continue introducing additional service offerings in the Rover marketplace, further delighting pets, parents, and providers and driving significant revenue growth. For example, in late 2015 we introduced dog walking, drop-in visits, and doggy day care as complements to dog boarding and house sitting. In the year ended December 31, 2022, those services had expanded to approximately 30% of total GBV. In 2022, we introduced virtual dog training through the acquisition of GoodPup, an early-stage company that operates a virtual dog training platform.
We launched Rover with pet services for dogs and found that pet lovers use Rover to arrange care for pets of all types. In 2018, we modified our applications to better support the needs of cat parents on the platform. In the year ended December 31, 2022, approximately 15% of our bookings were for cats, up from 13% in the prior year period. To further delight pet care providers and pet parents, we expect to continue enhancing our cat offering.
We launched Rover with pet services for dogs and found that pet lovers use Rover to arrange care for pets of all types. In 2018, we modified our applications to better support the needs of cat parents on the platform. In the year ended December 31, 2022, approximately 15% of our bookings were for cats, up from 13% in the prior year period. To further delight pet care providers and pet parents, we expect to continue enhancing our cat offering.
•Increase international coverage. We aim to serve pet parents and pet care providers around the world. In the near term, our focus is continued expansion within our existing footprint. While we believe that our current footprint
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represents the largest opportunity in Western Europe, we also believe that Belgium, Ireland, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, and Poland are attractive markets that could offer meaningful expansion to our existing European business. We continue to evaluate options to expand directly or via acquisitions to supplement our organic growth and operating leverage. Over the longer term, we may expand into additional attractive geographies.
•Grow advertising and retail offerings. We plan to leverage our brand to expand revenue from non-service offerings. We offer the Rover blog and Rover Store to make life easier and more joyful for pet parents and pet care providers. As part of our blog, Rover pet care experts and writers craft customer-centric product reviews, recommendations, and information, which have become a trusted source on all things pet-related. Over time, we entered into affiliate relationships with select retail and other partners to monetize our content operation. Our second initiative to leverage our brand to make life easier for pet parents is the Rover Store, which offers products that strengthen bonds between people and the pets in their lives. The Rover Store celebrates unique human-pet relationships with curated and high-quality third-party merchandise alongside bespoke Rover-branded merchandise and materials for pet care providers to grow their pet care businesses on Rover. Our third initiative is the launching of Rover Gear, our first line of dog walking products and everyday essentials for pet parents. Beginning in early March 2023, Rover Gear became available via the Rover Store and Amazon Marketplace.
•Expand strategic partnerships. We believe that, over time, we can extend the value of Rover with strategic partnerships in the pet industry and others, including travel, hospitality, and omnichannel retail. The first category of collaborations is with pet and travel partners; for example, we currently have programs with Petco and Walmart. The second category is focused on distributing access to services via Rover as an employee benefit; for example, we have a distribution partnership with Bright Horizons. These mutually beneficial partnerships can enable efficient growth by connecting Rover to new audiences of highly-qualified prospective customers: pet parents interested in travel, leading busy lives, and actively shopping for products they and their pets will love. By introducing Rover to these audiences through brands they know and trust, we can target our awareness-building efforts and connect more pet parents with quality, local pet care providers.
Our Foundation of Trust and Safety
Rover was founded in reverence for the unique bond between each pet and parent, so no pet, pet parent, pet care provider, or safety incident is a mere statistic. Building safety into every booking is core at Rover, and we are committed to promoting safe stays. For the rare instance when something doesn’t go as planned, we’ve built an experienced team to assist pet parents and pet care providers alike. We have built safety features into our platform which we believe, taken together, are unparalleled in comparison to other pet care options. This is made possible by a number of investments we have made to bring peace of mind to pet parents.
•Specialized support. As a commitment to the safety of pets and people using the marketplace, our Trust & Safety support line is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the United States and Canada for any questions or concerns. In the United Kingdom and Western Europe, English-language trust and safety support is also available 24/7, and additional language support is available 9:00 am to 6:00 pm in the United Kingdom, and 10:00 am to 7:00 pm in Western European markets. Pet care providers also have 24/7 access to advice from qualified veterinary professionals in case of emergencies.
•Watchlist and background checks. All new pet care providers on our platform in the United States and Canada pass third-party background checks in order to offer their services on Rover. In the United States, pet care providers are checked against national criminal offense databases, sex offender registries, and certain regulatory, terrorist, and sanctions watchlists. As of December 31, 2022, 100% of providers in North America who serviced a booking in 2022 had passed a standard background check, with over half passing an additional, enhanced background check. These enhanced checks are more comprehensive and include a manual search of county-level databases. Starting early in the first quarter of 2022, any pet care provider in North America who creates a new profile is required to complete an enhanced background check. In the United Kingdom and Western Europe, we use a third party to conduct identity verification on all pet care providers. All pet care provider profiles are also subject to review and approval by our team of pet care provider specialists.
•Strong community guidelines. We move quickly to address behaviors that are not consistent with our community guidelines. We regularly remove both pet parents and pet care providers from our platform if they behave in ways that violate our Terms of Service. In doing so, we aim to preserve the integrity of our platform and keep Rover safe for pets, parents, and providers.
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•Detailed - and personalized - pet care provider profiles. All pet care providers on our platform provide a detailed profile and personal information such as name, profile picture, location, and pet care experience, among other information. Pet care providers are able to specify what types of pets they are most comfortable with (dog/cat, size, age, breed, etc.), so that pet parents can find a provider that matches the unique needs of their pet. Rover also recommends that providers and pet parents have a meet and greet prior to first booking as an extra assurance that all parties are aligned and comfortable with the match. We offer a detailed meet and greet checklist that can help as a guide on what types of information to cover in this meeting, so that the stay is set up for success.
•Verified customer reviews. From inception through December 31, 2022, our pet parents had written more than 6.8 million cumulative reviews, and 97% of our reviewed bookings had a 5-star rating. Pet parents can also see how many of the clients a sitter has booked through Rover have come back to book with them again. In addition, after a booking is complete, pet care providers can write reviews of the pets and respond publicly to the pet parents’ reviews of themselves.
•Personal information privacy. Pet parents and pet care providers can communicate through the Rover platform without sharing their personal information using an in-product messaging platform, or via a Rover-generated phone number. Payment exchanges are secured through the Rover platform when the booking is made to ensure pet care providers are paid once the services are provided.
•Safety information sharing. We continually improve our platform to put pet safety at the forefront. Utilizing the wealth of safety information available on the Rover blog, we provide safety tips and reminders to our pet care providers when it’s most relevant. We proactively share information with pet care providers through multiple channels, including in-app messaging, SMS text, and email notifications. For example, during the summer months, we have provided high-heat risk alerts to providers caring for breeds that are susceptible to heat-related medical conditions.
Operations and Support
Our operations and support team assists pet parents and pet care providers with items such as changes to existing bookings, questions concerning the completion of a booking, addressing safety issues such as illness or other complications, and the initial quality review of pet care provider profiles. Rover also offers a Reservation Protection policy through which we can provide financial assistance if a pet care provider cancels last minute. We are proud of our success in providing excellent support to both pet parents and providers.
We partner with business process outsourcing providers to handle most of our standard customer service-related requests, while more sensitive and complex issues are handled by our in-house teams located in Seattle, WA, Spokane, WA, and San Antonio, TX.
In Europe, our service-related contacts, via voice, chat, and email, are handled both by employees located in Barcelona and our business process outsourcing partners. Rover employees in Barcelona are trained to handle both routine and escalated contacts. We offer local language support for all the countries in which we operate, with the hours of operation for this support varying by language.
Our Development and Technology Infrastructure
Our technology vision is to build and deliver secure, flexible, scalable systems, tools, and products that exceed our customers’ expectations, accelerate growth, and improve productivity. Our guiding principle is to aim for a technology architecture that is modularized along natural domain boundaries emerging from how our business works.
We built our marketplace to constantly improve its ability to match unique pets with unique pet care providers as the business scales. Our proprietary matching and booking platform connects to the frontend customer web and mobile clients, as well as to our support operations team and our data science platform. We collect and secure information generated from customer activity and use machine learning to continuously improve our matching algorithm. Our platform allows us to seamlessly internationalize our product, integrate images and videos, use experiments to optimize customer experience and test product improvements in real-time, monitor our site reliability, and rapidly respond to incidents. Finally, our matching and booking platform connects to leading third-party vendors for communications, payment processing, operations and support, as well as background checks and identity verifications.
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We have a research and development culture that rapidly and consistently delivers high-quality products and enhancements to the performance, functionality, and usability of our platform. As of December 31, 2022, we have assembled a team of 128 highly skilled technical leaders, engineers, designers, and computer and data scientists whose expertise spans a broad range of technical areas. We organize our team with product development, platform engineering, data engineering and analytics, cloud engineering solutions, and information security. We focus on customer experience, quality, consistency, reliability, and efficiency when developing our software. Our offerings are mobile-first and offered to customers on the platform of their choice. We follow agile methodology, frequently update our software products, and have a regular software release schedule. Our products and systems are built on secure and scalable technology platforms and services that enable us to deliver customer-centric products and services on scalable infrastructure able to serve peaks in demand.
We have a commercial agreement with Amazon Web Services for cloud services to help deliver and host our platform. As a result of this relationship, we believe we are more resilient to surges in demand on our platform or product changes we may introduce. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Privacy and Technology—We primarily rely on Amazon Web Services to deliver our services to users on our platform and any disruption of or interference with our use of Amazon Web Services could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and operating results.”
We designed our platform with multiple layers of redundancy to guard against data loss and deliver high availability. Full disk snapshots of the database are performed daily, and databases can be restored to any point in time within the retention period using our database services’ point-in-time recovery features. In addition, as a default, redundant copies of content are stored independently in at least two separate geographic regions and replicated reliably within each region. We are investing in iterating and continuously improving our data privacy, data protection, and security foundations. We are also continually implementing, reviewing, and updating our related policies and practices.
Marketing
Our marketing strategy primarily consists of acquisition marketing, brand marketing, lifecycle marketing, content publishing, and public relations.
We manage our digital demand acquisition marketing at a local level. In the earlier stages of maturity within a specific geography, we use acquisition marketing to complement organic growth and increase information for our algorithm. As a specific geographic marketplace matures, we see the proportion of new bookings driven by word-of-mouth increase. Once a local marketplace is more mature, we accelerate acquisition marketing with a faster payback period and higher expected lifetime value for a new pet parent. Marketing spend, inclusive of headcount, represented 82% of revenue in 2018, 53% in 2019, 33% in 2020, 18% in 2021, and 21% in 2022 for the years ended December 31.
Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, we embraced 2020 and 2021 as an opportunity to make meaningful improvements to our marketing platform and measurement approaches. Here, our goal was to make investments that would improve the efficiency of our paid marketing in years 2022 and beyond. We also made significant investments to improve our organic search rankings in response to Google’s algorithm changes, although subsequent Google updates have rolled back some of these improvements. We combined these improvements with a near-total reduction in spending on video and social channels that made less sense to run during the pandemic. As we entered 2022, we intentionally increased our marketing spend to support our new customer acquisition initiatives, including in our international markets. In the year ended December 31, 2021, 38% of new bookings came from paid channels, while in the year ended December 31, 2022, 45% of new bookings came from paid channels. For additional information regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Impact of COVID-19 and Other Health Trends.”
Our brand marketing strategy consists primarily of word-of-mouth, social media, and the Rover blog, which help us earn a place in pet parents’ “circle of trust” for pet care. We do this by establishing Rover as an extension of, and improvement upon, the pet care provided by friends and family: a caring, trustworthy, reliable option that becomes the go-to solution.
Rover’s blog reached over 42 million unique users in 2022, making it one of the world’s largest pet blogs. In addition to driving awareness of Rover to prospective customers, the Rover blog helps us to constantly reinforce our brand with pet parents and pet care providers who are currently on the platform. Historically, our content has focused on helpful, instructional articles designed to make it easier for people to have pets in their lives, spotlighting relevant stories that celebrate the joy of pets.
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Human Capital
Our People
Amazing people come to work at Rover because they hear about our culture. Our leadership team is committed to building and sustaining a culture that challenges people to be the best contributors to the business that they can be, but also welcomes and values them as human beings with everyday struggles that show up in the workplace. As a result, we have built a team of results-oriented and data-first professionals who are also collegial, personable, and genuinely nice to be around.
As of December 31, 2022, we had 501 employees, of which 413 were based in the United States and 88 were based outside of the United States. This headcount represents an approximately 35% year-over-year increase as our business continued to grow, and includes 128 product development employees, 41 marketing employees, 242 operations and support employees, and 90 general and administrative employees. In the second half of 2022, we adopted a policy empowering department heads to determine the in-office and remote work requirements for their teams. While some of our employees work remotely full-time, during the days when employees are together in person in one of our offices in Seattle, WA, Spokane, WA, San Antonio, TX, and Barcelona, Spain, they work in a collaborative, fun, and engaging environment with their four-legged friends. We also engage contractors and consultants.
Our U.S. employees are not represented by a labor union. We have not experienced any work stoppages and we consider our relations with our employees to be good.
Our Culture
Our approach for building culture is explicit. “Culture” can be defined as “the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent.” We subscribe strongly to this idea and have established company values that define and reinforce a culture of excellence at Rover. These values are not simply words on paper; they are statements that we take seriously and that we reinforce regularly during our interview process, in our employee review and development process, in our consideration of internal promotions, and in regular company presentations. These values are tied directly to specific, unique-to-Rover behaviors that we encourage, and others that we do not. They are worth stating here in their entirety:
•Commitment to our community. We do our very best, every day, to serve the needs of pet care providers, parents, and their pets, so they feel a part of our community. Their safety and well-being are a top priority.
•No office politics. We lean into the hard stuff, own our decisions, and prioritize business goals over short-term career interests. We have respect for transparency and reverence for vulnerability, and we tell it how it is—including about ourselves.
•Intentional balance of pace and precision. We rely on data and analysis to drive decisions, and we’re deliberate about balancing speed with the risk of error. And when it’s time to go fast, we move. We’re not intimidated by failure, accepting occasional errors of action as evidence of momentum.
•Focus on impact. We don’t waste time and we don’t waste money. We value results, not just insights or effort.
•Discipline in the way we debate. We get the right people involved in key conversations. When we spot a problem, we propose a solution. We believe that the best business outcomes come from a diverse set of perspectives. And when the decision owner makes a call, we lock arms to support its success.
•Devotion to each other as people. We’re driven by seeing our people succeed and grow. Families and life events come first, and we make space for fun and celebration. We’re committed to building a culture of inclusivity and diversity and ensuring everyone contributes to their fullest potential.
•Relentless pursuit of inspiring outcomes. We’re determined to do our jobs better than they’ve ever been done, and we inspire each other by pushing past our own perceived limitations—with the full knowledge that doing so will be uncomfortable.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
At Rover, our mission is to make it easier for everyone to experience the unconditional love of a pet, and we’re guided by that commitment throughout our work, including our recruiting and workforce development practices.
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We believe that a diverse, equitable, and inclusive team enhances our ability to serve our community and grow our business. We’re building that team by implementing best practices and providing resources and education to support every employee and leader in creating an environment that appreciates, respects, and empowers diverse perspectives.
We actively recruit, retain, and develop great minds from diverse backgrounds to join our company by creating a culture where differing perspectives and experiences are not only welcomed but encouraged, and all our colleagues are treated with respect.
Recruitment
Competition for talent has historically been intense, particularly for engineers and in the United States and Seattle, Washington, where our headquarters are located, and has only increased with the proliferation of work-from-anywhere policies that enable employees to seek out jobs that were previously not accessible. As a result, we have experienced increased costs associated with attracting and retaining our employees, especially since becoming a public company and as the business has grown over the past two years. However, we believe we offer something different: An opportunity to make it possible for everyone to experience the unconditional love of pets in their lives. We work diligently to attract talent from a diverse range of sources to grow our business and achieve our long-term strategic goals. We believe that we offer a dynamic culture where employees feel included and empowered to do their best work with opportunities to grow as well as competitive compensation and benefits.
Development and Engagement
We continue to prioritize and invest in creating opportunities for employees to grow and build their careers through training and development programs. These include offering tailored learning opportunities to enable employees to upskill while at work and driving regular career conversations between employees and their managers, as well as executive talent and succession planning.
We conduct biannual anonymous surveys to measure employee engagement and seek employee feedback on a variety of topics, including but not limited to, confidence in company leadership, speed of decision making, manager feedback, career growth opportunities and other ways to improve our position as an employer of choice. The results are shared with employees and are reviewed by senior leadership to identify areas of progress or opportunity and to help prioritize responsive actions to meet employee needs, align with Rover’s core values, and enhance employee and company success.
We take great pride in recognizing employees who embody our values, drive results, and have tenure with us. On a quarterly basis, we spotlight a different Rover core value and reward one employee as a values champion. We also recognize quarterly one hard working team that made a measurable business impact. We have a tradition of providing special recognition for those employees with five years of service at our quarterly company-wide meetings.
Total Rewards
To attract and retain top talent, we have offered and believe we will need to continue to offer competitive compensation and benefits packages, including by keeping pace with substantial market increases and inflation over recent years. Our compensation program rewards performance and is structured to encourage employees to invest in our future. In addition to competitive base salaries, we offer compensation and benefits programs (which vary by country/region) such as medical, dental, and vision insurance, on-demand primary care, prescription drug benefits, an employee assistance program, health and dependent care flexible spending accounts, a 401(k) plan for U.S. employees with a matching contribution, health savings account, basic term life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance, short-term and long-term disability insurance, paid parental leave, annual paid time off, paid sabbatical after achieving the required years of service, and commuter benefits. We also offer employees numerous pet benefits, including pet PTO (employees receive free Rover services which they can utilize when they travel), reimbursement for pet adoption/foster expenses, and paid pet bereavement leave. Employees also receive equity in the form of restricted stock units at the time of hire and through annual refresh grants. These equity grants vest over time to retain employees, foster a strong sense of ownership and engage our employees in our long-term success while also aligning their interests with those of our stockholders.
We design our employee benefits programs to be competitive in relation to the market. We adjust our employee benefits programs as needed based on market insights from third-party experts and data. In structuring our benefit programs, we seek to provide an aggregate level of benefits that are comparable to those provided by similar companies in each of our various labor markets.
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Employee Safety and Wellness
We have taken action to promote the health and safety of our employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, we quickly transitioned the vast majority of our employees to work remotely. To support the abrupt shift to a remote working environment, we granted employees a monthly allowance that could be used to cover certain expenses related to health, wellness, and productivity. We also launched mental health and telemedicine benefits to support our employees’ well-being. Subsequently, we enabled voluntary office access and implemented safety standards based on guidance from public health authorities.
Beyond COVID-19 measures and other health insurance benefits, we offer employees on-demand, app-based mental health and emotional support solutions.
Ethical Business Practices
We promote high standards of ethics and compliance for our business, including policies that set forth principles to guide employees, executives, and directors, such as our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics. We maintain a whistleblower policy and an anonymous hotline and web portal for the confidential reporting of any suspected policy or legal violations or concerns about any situation that does not reflect our culture and values.
Competition
Our customers consist of pet parents and pet care providers, and we compete to attract and retain both pet parents and pet care providers on the basis of commitment to safety, personalized care, customer service, brand appeal, and the usefulness and convenience of our platform. We also compete, with respect to pet parents, on quality, affordability and variety of offerings, and, with respect to pet care providers, on the ability to generate income.
The markets in which we operate are highly fragmented. We face multiple competitors across different categories, and our competitors vary in both size and breadth of services. We expect competition to continue, both from current competitors, who may be well-established and enjoy greater resources or other strategic advantages, as well as new entrants into the market, some of which may become significant competitors in the future. Our main competitors include:
•Friends, family, and neighbors. Our largest competitive dynamic remains the people to whom pet parents go for pet care within their personal networks.
•Local independent operators. Local mom and pop shops and independent professionals often operate at a small scale with little to no online presence, primarily relying on word-of-mouth and marketing solutions such as flyers and local ads. As a pet parent, it is difficult to know where to find reliable information, who to call, and who to trust.
•Large commercial providers. Large commercial providers, such as kennels and daycares, often struggle to meet the individual needs of pet parents and their pets. Such providers can be expensive, and their facilities are often crowded, inducing stress in some pets and leading pet parents to question the quality of care their pets receive.
•Online aggregators and directories. Pet parents can also access general purpose online aggregators and directories, such as Craigslist, Nextdoor, or Yelp, to find pet care providers. However, pet parents may lack trust in these directories, or find it difficult to find an available and qualified pet care provider that suits their lifestyle, budget, and unique pet care needs.
•Other digital marketplaces. We compete with services such as Wag, the next largest online marketplace for pet care, and the pet care offering on Care.com in the United States, and small operators such as Gudog in Europe and Pawshake in Europe and Canada. We differentiate ourselves with our pure play and scaled offering.
We believe that we compete effectively against each of these competitors given our scale, brand, trust, service, convenience, data, quality of care, affordability, and ability of pet care providers to generate income. For additional information about the risks to our business related to competition, see “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—The business and industry in which we participate are highly competitive and we may be unable to compete successfully with our current or future competitors.”
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Intellectual Property
We believe that our intellectual property rights are valuable and important to our business. We rely on trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, license agreements, intellectual property, assignment agreements, confidentiality procedures, non-disclosure agreements, and employee non-disclosure and invention assignment agreements to establish and protect our proprietary rights. Though we rely in part upon these legal and contractual protections, we believe that factors such as the skills and ingenuity of our employees and the functionality and frequent enhancements to our platform are larger contributors to our success in the marketplace.
We have an ongoing trademark and service mark registration program pursuant to which we register our key brand names and product names, taglines, and logos in the United States and other countries to the extent we determine appropriate and cost-effective. As of December 31, 2022, we held eight registered trademarks in the United States and 22 registered trademarks in foreign jurisdictions. We also have common law rights in some trademarks and pending trademark applications in the United States and foreign jurisdictions. In addition, we have registered domain names for websites that we use in our business, such as www.rover.com and other variations.
We intend to pursue additional intellectual property protection to the extent we believe it would be beneficial and cost-effective. Despite our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights, they may not be respected in the future or may be invalidated, circumvented, or challenged. For additional information, see “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property.”
Data Privacy, Data Protection and Security
We are committed to earning and maintaining the trust of our customers and our employees, and as such, we place an emphasis on data privacy, data protection and security. Our privacy and information security program is designed and implemented, both within our internal systems and on our platform, in an effort to address the security and compliance requirements of personal or otherwise sensitive or confidential data related to pet parents, pet care providers, and our employees.
We have a dedicated team of professionals that focuses on technical measures such as application, network, and system security, as well as policy measures related to privacy compliance, internal training and education, and documented incident response protocols. We maintain a documented information security program that includes periodic scans designed to identify security vulnerabilities on our servers, workstations, network equipment, production environment, and applications, and provides for subsequent remediation of any discovered vulnerabilities according to severity. We also conduct regular penetration tests and remediate according to severity for any vulnerabilities found.
We encrypt sensitive and proprietary information, as well as the personal information of our customers and our employees, both in transit (using secure transport layer security cryptographic protocols) and at rest. We use multi-factor authentication, permissioning software, audit logs, and other security controls to control access to internal systems that contain personal or other confidential information.
We design and implement our platform, offerings, and policies with a goal of facilitating compliance with evolving privacy, data protection and data security laws and regulations and demonstrate respect for the privacy and data protection rights of our customers and employees. We publish our customer-related privacy practices on our website, and we maintain certain additional internal policies and practices relating to the collection, use, storage, and disclosure of personal information. We maintain a process for responding to requests made by law enforcement or government authorities for the personal information of our customers, and in connection with that process, we generally require a subpoena, court order or similar legal process prior to providing such personal information.
Publication of our privacy statement and other policies and notices regarding privacy, data protection and data security may subject us to investigation or enforcement actions by state and federal regulators if those statements, notices or policies are found to be deficient, lacking transparency, deceptive, unfair, or misrepresentative of our practices. We also may be bound from time to time by contractual obligations related to privacy, data protection, or data security.
The laws and regulations to which we are subject relating to privacy, data protection, and data security, as well as their interpretation and enforcement, are evolving and we expect them to continue to change over time. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act, or the CCPA, as amended by the California Privacy Rights and Enforcement Act of 2020, or the CPRA, among other things, requires covered companies to provide specified disclosures to California consumers, and affords such consumers abilities to opt out of certain sales of personal information. The CPRA further expands the CCPA with additional data privacy compliance requirements that may impact our business, and establishes a regulatory agency dedicated to enforcing
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those requirements. Guidance related to the CCPA and CPRA continues to evolve. In addition, on March 2, 2021, Virginia enacted the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, or VCDPA, which took effect on January 1, 2023, and the Colorado Privacy Act, passed on June 8, 2021, will take effect on July 1, 2023. Both laws emulate the CCPA and the CPRA in many respects, but each law includes its own unique compliance requirements. Other privacy and data security laws and regulations to which we may be subject include, for example, the California Online Privacy Protection Act, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act, Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation, the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the EU ePrivacy Directive, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act.
More generally, the various legal obligations that apply to us relating to privacy and data security may evolve in a manner that relates to our practices or the features of our mobile applications or website. We may need to take additional measures to comply with new and evolving legal obligations and to maintain and improve our information security posture in an effort to reduce information security incidents or avoid breaches affecting personal information or other sensitive or proprietary data. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Privacy and Technology—Changes in laws or regulations relating to privacy, data protection, or the protection or transfer of data relating to individuals, or any actual or perceived failure by us to comply with such laws and regulations or any other obligations relating to privacy, data protection or the protection or transfer of data relating to individuals, could adversely affect our business.”
Government Regulation
We are subject to a wide variety of laws, regulations, and standards in the United States and foreign jurisdictions. These laws, regulations, and standards govern issues such as worker classification, labor and employment, anti-discrimination, payments, pricing, whistleblowing and worker confidentiality obligations, animal and human health and safety, text messaging, subscription services, intellectual property, consumer protection and warnings, marketing, product liability, environmental protection, taxation, privacy, data protection, data security, competition, unionizing and collective action, arbitration agreements and class action waiver provisions, terms of service, e-commerce, mobile application and website accessibility, money transmittal, and background checks. These laws, regulations, and standards are often complex and subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity or unclear applicability, and as a result, their application in practice may change or develop over time through judicial decisions or as new guidance or interpretations are provided by regulatory and governing bodies, such as federal, state, and local administrative agencies, and could be interpreted by regulators and courts in ways that could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. If we are unable to comply with these laws or regulations in a cost-effective manner, we may need to modify impacted services and our platform, which could require a substantial investment and loss of revenue, or cease providing the impacted service altogether. If we are found to have violated laws or regulations, we may be subject to significant fines, penalties, and other losses.
National, state and local governmental authorities have enacted or pursued, and may in the future enact and pursue, measures designed to regulate the “gig economy.” For example, in 2019, the California Assembly passed AB-5, codifying a narrow worker classification test known as the “ABC test,” which has had the effect of treating many “gig economy” workers as employees. AB-5 includes a referral agency exemption that specifically applies to animal services and dog walking and grooming. We believe that pet care providers who use the Rover platform either satisfy the ABC test, fall within the referral agency exemption, or both. In addition, other jurisdictions could adopt similar laws that do not include such carve outs and which, if applied to Rover’s platform, could adversely impact its availability in those jurisdictions and our business. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Regulation and Taxation—If pet care providers are reclassified as employees under applicable law or new laws are passed causing the reclassification of pet care providers as employees or otherwise adopting employment-like restrictions with regard to pet care providers who use our platform, our business would be materially adversely affected” and Note 11—Commitments and Contingencies under the subsection titled “Litigation and Other Contingencies” in our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Part II, Item 8 of this report.
Other types of new laws and regulations, and changes to existing laws and regulations, continue to be adopted, implemented, and interpreted in response to our business and related technologies. For instance, state and local governments have in the past pursued, or may in the future pursue or enact, licensing, zoning or other regulation that impacts the ability of individuals to provide home-based pet care. Additionally, in the United States, we are required to report payments we process on our platform on behalf of pet care providers who are U.S. persons if they reach certain payment thresholds to the Internal Revenue Service and certain states. The thresholds for this reporting are scheduled to significantly decrease starting with the 2023 tax year pursuant to the American Rescue Plan. In addition to these U.S. reporting requirements, there are a number of international jurisdictions that we operate in which have or are in the process of implementing new tax information reporting requirements. For more information about these tax information reporting requirements, see “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business
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and Industry—Our business and users are subject to tax information reporting requirements in a number of jurisdictions. Such obligations could increase our operational costs and negatively impact the user experience on our platform.”
As we continue to expand our services and offerings, we may be subject to additional regulations separate from those discussed above. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Regulation and Taxation.”
We proactively work with state and local governments and regulatory bodies to ensure that our platform is available broadly.
Available Information
We maintain a website at www.rover.com. We make available, free of charge, on our investor relations website at https://investors.rover.com under “Financials—SEC Filings,” our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports as soon as reasonably practicable after electronically filing or furnishing those reports to the SEC. Information contained on our website and investor relations website is not a part of or incorporated by reference into this report or any other document we file with the SEC, and the inclusion of our website and investor relations website addresses in this report is an inactive textual reference only. The SEC also maintains a website that contains our SEC filings at www.sec.gov.
We announce material information to the public about Rover, our products and services and other matters through a variety of means, including filings with the SEC, press releases, public conference calls, webcasts, our website (www.rover.com), and our investor relations website (https://investors.rover.com). We use these channels, as well as social media, including our Twitter account (@RoverDotCom), our LinkedIn account (https://www.linkedin.com/company/roverdotcom), and our YouTube page (https://www.youtube.com/roverdotcom), to communicate with investors and the public news and developments about Rover and other matters and in order to achieve broad, non-exclusionary distribution of information to the public and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. We encourage investors, the media, and others interested in Rover to review the information we make public in these locations, as such information could be deemed to be material information. This list may be updated from time to time and reflects current updated channels as of the date of this report. The information we post through these channels is not a part of or incorporated by reference into this report or any other document we file with the SEC, and the inclusion of our website and investor relations website addresses, our LinkedIn and YouTube pages, and Twitter account is an inactive textual reference only.
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
You should consider carefully the following risks and uncertainties, together with the other information in this annual report, including the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” beginning on page 67 and our consolidated financial statements and related notes beginning on page 96, and in our other public filings in evaluating our business. Current global economic events and conditions may amplify many of these risks. Our business, operating results, financial condition or prospects could also be harmed by risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently do not believe are material. If any of the following risks actually occur, our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the market price of our Class A Common Stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.
Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
Any further and continued decline or disruption in the travel and pet care services industries or an economic downturn resulting from current or future pandemics or other health-related events, sustained levels of increased inflation, rising interest rates, any failure to lift the U.S. debt ceiling, lower consumer confidence, depressed consumer spending, geopolitical instability or economic uncertainty or recession, could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Our financial performance is substantially dependent on the strength of the travel and pet care services industries. Rising inflation and interest rates, significant U.S. dollar and foreign currency fluctuations, lower consumer confidence, depressed consumer spending, an economic recession, volatility in the stock market, and delays, cancellations and other disruptions impacting the travel industry could adversely impact travel and demand for our services. For example, pet care providers have increased prices on the platform and may continue to raise prices to a degree that pet owner demand declines, and the overall price of travel could increase to a degree that demand for travel and thus pet care services declines. In addition to the impacts of COVID-19 and other non-COVID illnesses as discussed elsewhere in this report, other events beyond our control can result in
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declines in travel or continued work-from-home policies. For example, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its resulting consequences, such as increasing fuel and commodity prices and the potential for political unrest or military conflict to spread across Europe, could materially adversely impact travel and demand for our services in all of our markets, especially our United Kingdom and Western European markets. Because these events or concerns and the full impact of their effects are largely unpredictable and difficult to measure, they can dramatically and suddenly affect travel and work behavior by pet parents and therefore demand for our platform, which could materially adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our financial performance is also subject to global economic conditions and their impact on levels of discretionary consumer spending. Downturns in worldwide or regional economic conditions or recessions beyond our control, such as the downturn resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic or a future downturn resulting from rising inflation or interest rates, lower consumer confidence, depressed consumer spending, changes in monetary or fiscal policy, volatility due to geopolitical instability, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, or the uncertainty arising from these events have led or could lead to a general decrease in travel and spending on pet care services. Future downturns in economic conditions or a recession in the United States or worldwide may materially adversely impact demand for our platform, our business, operating results and financial condition.
We have incurred net losses in each year since inception and may not be able to achieve or sustain annual profitability.
As of December 31, 2022, we had an accumulated deficit of $342.3 million. Historically, we have invested significantly in efforts to grow our pet parent and pet care provider network, introduced new or enhanced offerings and features, increased marketing spend, expanded operations, and hired additional employees. We are passionate about continually enhancing the experience of pets, pet parents and pet care providers, which may not necessarily maximize short-term financial results. This focus may not be consistent with our short-term expectations and may not produce the long-term benefits expected. In the second quarter of 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we significantly reduced fixed and variable costs. Since then, we have made and expect to continue to make significant investments related to improving market conditions and operating as a public company. For example, we have significantly increased headcount as demand increased starting in 2021, invested in product enhancements and marketing efforts, acquired GoodPup, an early-stage company that operates a virtual dog training platform, and invested in another early-stage company with a complementary service offering. Additionally, stock-based compensation expense related to restricted stock units, or RSUs, and other equity awards will continue to be a significant expense in future periods. We may not succeed in increasing revenue sufficiently to offset these higher expenses or achieve a positive return on our acquisitions and investments, which would adversely impact our ability to achieve or sustain annual profitability.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of actions to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic have materially adversely impacted and may continue to materially adversely impact our business, operating results and financial condition.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the spread of COVID-19 infections among pet parents, pet care providers and our employees and new habits such as increased adoption of remote and hybrid working arrangements and increased reliance on online meeting tools rather than in-person meetings and business travel. At various points during the pandemic, governments imposed various restrictions to limit the spread of COVID-19, including emergency declarations at the federal, state and local levels, school and business closings, quarantines, “shelter at home” orders, travel restrictions, limitations on social or public gatherings and other social distancing measures. Any return to these government restrictions in the future, the continued spread of COVID-19 infections among pet parents, pet care providers and our employees, and the entrenchment of the new habits regarding working arrangements and travel, had and may continue to have a material adverse impact on our long-term business, operations and financial condition, and the demand for pet care.
Although demand for our offerings resumed in May 2021 as shelter-in-place orders and travel advisories lifted and we have since achieved record quarterly and annual highs for new and repeat bookings, GBV and revenue, we continue to see demand adversely impacted as a result of each COVID-19 wave or variant and other non-COVID seasonal illnesses and cancellation rates that remain elevated compared to pre-pandemic levels. Despite achieving increases in 2022 revenue, GBV and new and repeat bookings as compared to 2021, the effect and extent of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business in the near and medium-term continue to be uncertain and difficult to predict. As our performance in 2021 benefited from a spike in travel demand from the vaccine roll-outs and the surge in pandemic pet adoptions, the year-over-year growth rates involving these periods should not be considered representative of the long-term growth rate performance of our business. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Impact of COVID-19 and Other Health Trends.” Accordingly, our business may again be negatively impacted if governmental orders and advisories are reinstated due to novel strains of COVID-19 or if our pet parent and pet care provider base are infected with COVID-19 or non-
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COVID illnesses that may result from reduced immunity caused by social distancing during the pandemic or their behavior is impacted due to such infections or new COVID-19 variants or sub-variants, and demand may remain depressed for a significant length of time if COVID-19 results in long-term changes in behavior. We cannot predict when, if ever, cancellation rates will return to pre-pandemic levels, nor do we know how pet parent and pet care provider behavior will be impacted even if pre-pandemic levels of cancellation rates return. Any of the foregoing factors, or other cascading effects of the COVID-19 pandemic that are not currently foreseeable, may materially adversely impact our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects.
In the second half of 2022, we adopted a policy empowering department heads to determine the in-office and remote work requirements for their teams. While we will maintain office space for employees to work, learn and collaborate, most of our employees and many pet parents are still working remotely the majority of the time and these arrangements, especially if maintained over the long-term, could have a number of materially negative impacts on our business, including:
•reduced or flat demand for daytime pet care services due to pet parents’ presence at home;
•slower execution of our business plans and reduced productivity and availability of key personnel, other employees and third-party service providers that perform critical services;
•increased consumer privacy, information technology security and fraud risks; and
•impairment charges related to real property lease agreements if remote work arrangements become permanent.
Given the evolving nature of COVID-19, including novel strains of the virus and the uncertainty it has produced around the world, we do not believe it is possible to predict the COVID-19 pandemic’s medium- to long-term impact on our business, operating results and financial condition. The extent of the longer term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and financial results will depend largely on future developments, the development, severity and transmissibility of novel strains of the COVID-19 virus, such as the Delta and Omicron variants and sub-variants, any non-COVID illnesses that may result from reduced immunity caused by social distancing during the pandemic, impacts on travel or work behavior, the impact on capital and financial markets and on the United States and global economies, the availability, uptake, and effectiveness of vaccines and boosters, the prevalence of local, national and international travel restrictions, any risk or perceived risk that pets may be a vector for COVID-19, and governmental or regulatory orders that impact our business, all of which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted.
Our revenue may not continue to grow over time and may slow or reverse again in the future.
Prior to COVID-19, we experienced significant revenue growth from 2016 to 2019, growing from $16 million to $95 million in revenue. In 2020, revenue decreased approximately 49% from 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although 2021 revenue increased approximately 16% from 2019 levels and 2022 revenue increased approximately 58% from 2021 levels despite the continued adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the non-COVID illnesses, such growth may again slow or reverse due to the other risks described in these “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this report. Investors should not rely on our revenue or revenue growth for any previous quarterly or annual period as any indication of revenue or revenue growth in future periods.
Future revenue growth depends on the growth of the number of pet parents on our platform, the average booking value and our take rates, the frequency with which pet parents seek to book services, our ability to attract sufficient high-quality pet care providers to meet pet parent demand, and the effects of general economic and business conditions worldwide, including trends in the travel industry, inflation, consumer confidence and spending, fiscal and monetary policy, fuel and commodity costs, and interest rates. We also expect to continue to make investments in the development and expansion of our technology and business, which may not result in increased revenue or growth. If the demand for access to online marketplaces for individual pet care services does not grow, or if we are unable to maintain share, our revenue growth rate could be materially adversely affected. A softening of demand, especially in the acquisition of new pet parents which is an important driver of future revenue, may be caused by events outside of our control, such as COVID-19, other non-COVID illnesses or health-related events, changes in pet parent and pet care provider preferences, an economic downturn, or other risks described in these “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this report, will result in decreased revenue. For example, starting in the second quarter and continuing through the fourth quarter of 2022, we saw the Google query volume for some key terms like “dog boarding,” which is correlated to demand from new pet parents, decreasing year-over-year as compared to the outsized gains of 2021, although still significantly above 2019 levels. Moreover, while average booking values have increased since the second quarter of 2021 helping to drive revenue growth, the rate of increases has moderated since the second quarter of 2022, which may impact future revenue growth and growth rates.
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Our Adjusted EBITDA may not continue to grow over time and may slow or reverse again in the future.
Although our Adjusted EBITDA has continued to improve on an annual basis and was positive for the first time during fiscal 2021 and again during fiscal 2022, we may experience declines in Adjusted EBITDA on a quarterly or annual basis for as long as the COVID-19 pandemic and other non-COVID illnesses continue to adversely impact our business or if general economic and business conditions worsen. See “—Any further and continued decline or disruption in the travel and pet care services industries or an economic downturn resulting from current or future pandemics, sustained levels of increased inflation, rising interest rates, any failure to lift the U.S. debt ceiling, lower consumer confidence, geopolitical instability or economic uncertainty or recession, could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.” Other developments in our business, including lower than anticipated revenue and higher operating expenses due to increased investments in the business, higher personnel costs, increased advertising, marketing and stock-based compensation expenses, operating costs from acquisitions, or unanticipated events, could negatively impact our future Adjusted EBITDA. If our future Adjusted EBITDA fails to meet investor or analyst expectations, it is likely to have a materially negative effect on our stock price. Adjusted EBITDA is a supplemental metric that is not calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. See the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net loss, the most directly comparable financial measure stated in accordance with GAAP, and for additional information.
Online marketplaces for pet care are still in relatively early stages of growth and if demand for them does not continue to grow, grows slower than expected, or fails to grow as large as expected, our business, financial condition and operating results could be materially adversely affected.
Demand for booking pet care through online marketplaces has grown rapidly since the 2011 launch of our platform, but such platforms are still relatively new and it is uncertain to what extent market acceptance will continue to grow, if at all. Our success will depend to a substantial extent on the willingness of people to obtain pet care through platforms like ours. If the public does not perceive these services as beneficial, or chooses not to adopt them, or instead adopts alternative solutions, then the market for our platform may not further develop, may develop slower than we expect, or may not achieve the growth potential we expect, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
Our marketing efforts to help grow the business may not be effective.
Promoting awareness of our platform is important to our ability to grow the business and to attract new pet parents and pet care providers. Since inception, our user base has grown in large part as a result of word-of-mouth, complemented by paid and organic search, social media and other online advertising and infrequent television advertising. Many of our marketing efforts to date have focused on amplifying and accelerating this word-of-mouth momentum and such efforts may not continue to be effective. Although we continue to rely significantly on word-of-mouth, organic search and other unpaid channels, we believe that a significant amount of the growth in the number of pet parents and pet care providers that use our platform also is attributable to our paid marketing initiatives.
Prior to the impact of COVID-19, marketing efforts included referrals, affiliate programs, free or discount trials, partnerships, display advertising, billboards, radio, video, television, direct mail, social media, email, podcasts, classified advertisement websites, mobile “push” communications, search engine optimization and paid keyword search campaigns. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, we managed marketing spend carefully, focusing expenses primarily in keyword search campaigns and testing. More recently, we have invested into the recovery with increased spending on social media and streaming video, with a careful eye toward measurable results. Our marketing initiatives may become increasingly expensive and generating a meaningful return on these initiatives may be difficult. Even if we successfully increase revenue as a result of paid marketing efforts, we may not offset the additional marketing expenses incurred. Moreover, marketing investments are made ahead of GBV and bookings, and thus marketing as a percentage of revenue is correlated to increases in cancellation rates as we incur marketing expense for a booking that is not completed. Some or all of our marketing efforts have been less effective in periods of lower overall category demand and may be limited in their ability to help us grow our business in the future.
Some providers of consumer devices, mobile or desktop operating systems, and web browsers have, or have announced plans to, disable or block tracking technologies (also known as cookies) which, if widely adopted, could also result in online tracking methods becoming significantly less effective. For example, some of our marketing measurement and targeting tools, as well as those used by our media partners, rely on third-party cookies. As access to user cookies is restricted, we may lose the ability to target our advertisements and measure their effectiveness. As a result, the ability of our media placements to reach their intended audiences may be reduced, and we may decide to reduce or completely eliminate spending on the affected marketing
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channels, which could reduce our ability to effectively or efficiently acquire new customers. Similarly, our vendors, particularly those providing advertising and analytics products and services have modified and may continue to modify their products and services in ways that reduce the efficiency of our marketing efforts and our access to data about the use of our platform. Limits to our use of these technologies could harm our ability to personalize the experience of buyers, increase our costs, and limit our ability to attract and retain pet care providers and pet parents on cost-effective terms. If marketing efforts to help grow the business are not effective, our business, financial condition and operating results could be materially adversely affected.
Off-platform bookings and payments have had and may continue to have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
Certain pet parents reach out to pet care providers (and vice versa) and incentivize them to book directly with them and bypass our platform, which reduces the use of our platform. Additionally, certain pet care providers source bookings through our platform and then complete the transaction off of our platform and may continue to do so or may increase the share of bookings that they take off our platform. The reasons for this behavior may include pricing, the fees we charge to use our platform, and negative perceptions about the usability and functionality of the Rover app. We endeavor to reduce this activity through continual improvements to our platform and other offerings, such as the Rover Guarantee, that incentivize pet care providers and pet parents to transact through Rover. In addition, our matching algorithm is designed to identify signals of high quality care that are observable from platform transactions, such as repeat booking activity, and to increase the chance that pet care providers exhibiting such signals are featured to pet parents. We also have notifications in the platform that encourage pet care providers to book through the platform, and we identify and deactivate serial diverters from the platform. Despite these attributes, we cannot prevent off-platform transactions entirely.
If we fail to retain existing pet care providers or attract new pet care providers, or if pet care providers fail to provide high-quality offerings, our business, operating results and financial condition would be materially adversely affected.
Pet care providers have a range of options for offering their services and they may advertise their offerings in multiple ways that may or may not include our platform. Some pet care providers have chosen to cross-list their offerings on other platforms, which reduces the availability of such offerings on our platform. When offerings are cross listed, the price paid by pet parents on our platform may be or may appear to be less competitive for many reasons, including differences in fee structure and policies, which may cause pet parents to book with competitors. Additionally, as noted in the previous risk factor, certain pet parents and pet care providers may complete their transactions off-platform. A change in our ability to attract pet care providers to our platform, enable them to generate income, and dissuade them from sourcing bookings off our platform could negatively impact our ability to provide sufficient offerings to attract and serve pet parents and, in turn, have a significant negative impact on our GBV, bookings, revenue, operating results and financial condition.
Our business depends on pet care providers maintaining their use of our platform and engaging in practices that encourage pet parents to book their services, including increasing the number of offerings that are available to book, providing timely responses to inquiries from pet parents, offering a variety of desirable and differentiated offerings at competitive prices that meet the expectations of pet parents, and offering exceptional services to pets and pet parents. These practices are outside of our control. If pet care providers do not establish or maintain enough availability, the number of bookings declines for a particular period, or pet care provider pricing is unattractive or insufficient, revenue will decline and our business, operating results and financial condition would be materially adversely affected.
Other factors that could adversely impact the availability of pet care providers and the number of offerings on our platform include:
•our inability to offer sufficient tools to assist them;
•negative perceptions about, or our inability to satisfy expectations related to, the usability and functionality of the Rover app;
•our inability to attract large number of prospective pet parents to our platform;
•the COVID-19 pandemic, non-COVID illnesses or other pandemics or health concerns and their impact on pet care providers;
•fees we charge for the use of our platform;
•pet care providers choosing other third-party platforms over our platform;
•economic, social and political factors;
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•negative perceptions of trust and safety on and off our platform;
•negative experiences with pets and pet parents, including pets who damage pet care provider property;
•our efforts or failure or perceived failure to comply with regulatory requirements;
•any discontinuation of, or reduction in reimbursement benefits under, the Rover Guarantee program (which reimburses both pet parents and pet care providers up to $25,000 for costs arising from certain injuries or damages that occur during a service booked and paid through Rover and up to $1 million for costs arising from damage to pet parent property or certain third-party injuries, subject to terms and conditions thereunder);
•large numbers of pet parent cancellations;
•changes to tax reporting requirements, including significantly reduced U.S. reporting thresholds for payment processors that are scheduled to take effect for the 2023 tax year and other tax reporting requirements scheduled to take effect in future years in Europe and Canada (see “—Our business and users are subject to tax information reporting requirements in a number of jurisdictions. Such obligations could increase our operational costs and negatively impact the user experience on our platform” below); and
•removal of pet care providers from our platform due to violation of our community standards or other factors we deem detrimental to our community.
If we are unable to attract and retain individual pet care providers in a cost-effective manner, or at all, our business, operating results and financial condition would be materially adversely affected.
If we fail to retain existing pet parents or attract new pet parents, or if pet parents fail to receive high-quality offerings, our business, operating results and financial condition would be materially adversely affected.
Our success depends significantly on retaining existing pet parents and attracting new pet parents to use our platform, increasing the number of repeat bookings that pet parents make and attracting them to different types of service offerings on our platform. Pet parents have a range of options for meeting their pet care needs and may choose to arrange for pet care services with pet care providers outside of our platform. Our ability to attract and retain pet parents could be materially adversely affected by a number of factors, such as:
•pet care providers failing to provide differentiated, high-quality and adequately available pet care services at competitive prices;
•negative perceptions about, or our inability to satisfy expectations related to, the usability and functionality of the Rover app;
•increasing prices set by pet care providers;
•fees we charge for the use of our platform;
•taxes we may collect in certain jurisdictions;
•our failure to facilitate new or enhanced offerings or features that pet parents value;
•large numbers of pet care provider cancellations;
•the COVID-19 pandemic or other pandemics or health concerns and their impact on pet parents;
•macroeconomic, geopolitical and other conditions, including sustained levels of increased inflation and rising interest rates, lower consumer confidence and depressed consumer spending, outside of our control affecting travel or business activities generally;
•elevated levels of delays or cancellations impacting travel activities;
•increased or continuing restrictions on travel and immigration;
•the impact of climate change on travel and seasonal destinations (such as fires, floods and other natural disasters);
•the performance of our matching algorithms;
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•pet parents not receiving timely and adequate support from us;
•negative perceptions of the trust and safety of our platform;
•negative associations with, or reduced awareness of, our brand;
•declines and inefficiencies in our marketing efforts;
•our platform not being perceived as easy to navigate, including due to pet parents experiencing an unsatisfactory sign-up, search, booking, or payment experience on our platform or our failure to provide a user experience that meets rapidly changing expectations;
•any discontinuation of, or reduction in reimbursement benefits under, the Rover Guarantee program;
•any actual or perceived breach of privacy, data protection or security on our platform;
•our efforts or failure or perceived failure to comply with regulatory requirements; and
•our decision to remove pet parents from our platform for not adhering to our community standards or other factors we deem detrimental to our community.
Our business and users are subject to tax information reporting requirements in a number of jurisdictions. Such obligations could increase our operational costs and negatively impact the user experience on our platform.
In the United States, we are required to report payments we process on our platform on behalf of pet care providers who are U.S. persons if they reach certain payment thresholds to the Internal Revenue Service and certain states. The IRS threshold and certain state thresholds are scheduled to significantly decrease from more than 200 transactions per year and exceeding an aggregate amount of $20,000 in gross processed payments to $600 in gross processed payments starting with the 2023 tax year pursuant to the American Rescue Plan of 2021. In addition to our changing and currently uncertain tax information reporting requirements in the United States, there are a number of international jurisdictions that we operate in which have or are in the process of implementing new tax information reporting requirements. For example, the European Union is expected to have tax information reporting requirements with no minimum threshold starting with the 2023 tax year and Canada is considering similar requirements starting with the 2024 tax year.
These obligations have and are expected to continue to increase our operational costs and could negatively impact the pet care provider experience. In the U.S., this may be due to confusion resulting from the fact that amounts reported on the tax information reporting forms are not reduced to reflect refunds or fees we retain. These obligations could also make our platform less attractive to pet care providers, who may not wish to be subject to these tax information reporting requirements, may not wish to provide their tax identification information, may fail to provide accurate information, or may find their reporting obligations confusing. Any failure by us to meet tax information reporting requirements or to provide a streamlined pet care provider experience in collecting required information could negatively impact our business.
The success of our platform relies on our matching algorithms and other proprietary technology and any failure to operate and improve our algorithms or to develop other innovative proprietary technology effectively could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
We use proprietary Rover matching algorithms in an effort to maximize pet parent and pet care provider satisfaction and retention, as well as to optimize return on marketing expenses. Built to improve with data science, we have carefully designed algorithms to leverage growing scale by helping pet parents find increasingly better matches as our provider network expands. Successfully using our algorithms to match pet parents and pet care providers is crucial to our continued success, as better matches can lead to more bookings, more data and, in turn, further improvements to our algorithms. Any failure to successfully operate or improve our algorithms or to develop other innovative proprietary technology could materially adversely affect our ability to maintain and expand our business. Fewer matches could lead to fewer bookings, which could in turn lead to less or lower quality data, affecting our ability to improve our algorithms and maintain, market and scale our platform effectively.
Additionally, there is increased governmental interest in regulating technology companies in areas including algorithm-based discrimination. Any failure, or perceived failure, or negative consequences associated with our efforts to comply with any present or future laws or regulations in this area could subject us to claims, actions and other legal and regulatory proceedings, fines or other penalties and other enforcement actions and result in damage to our reputation and adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
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Our fee structure is impacted by a number of factors and ultimately may not be successful in attracting and retaining pet parents and pet care providers.
Demand for our platform is highly sensitive to a range of factors, including the prices that pet care providers set for their services, the level of potential earnings required to attract and retain pet care providers, and the fees we charge pet care providers and pet parents. Many factors, including operating costs, legal and regulatory requirements, constraints or changes and our current and future competitors’ pricing and marketing strategies, could significantly affect our pricing strategies. Existing or future competitors offer, or may in the future offer, lower-priced or a broader range of offerings. Similarly, certain competitors may use marketing strategies that enable them to attract or retain pet parents or pet care providers at a lower cost than us. There can be no assurance that we will not be forced, through competition, regulation, or otherwise, to reduce the fees charged to pet care providers and pet parents, or to increase marketing and other expenses to attract and retain pet parents and pet care providers in response to competitive pressures.
We have launched and may in the future launch new fee strategies or modify existing fee strategies, any of which may not ultimately be successful in attracting and retaining pet parents and pet care providers. Further, pet parents’ price sensitivity may vary by geographic location. In particular, our continued international expansion may require us to change our fee structure and to adjust to different cultural norms in different locales, which efforts may not be successful. While we attempt to set fees based on prior operating experience and pet parent and pet care provider feedback and engagement levels, our assessments may not be accurate. In addition, if the offerings on our platform change, then we may need to revise our fee structures.
The business and industry in which we participate are highly competitive and we may be unable to compete successfully with our current or future competitors.
We operate in a highly competitive environment and face significant competition in attracting pet care providers and pet parents. Pet parents have a range of options to find and book pet care offerings, both online and offline. We believe that our competitors include:
•friends, family and neighbors that pet parents go to for pet care within their personal networks;
•local independent operators;
•large, commercial providers such as kennels and daycares;
•online aggregators and directories, such as Craigslist, Nextdoor, and Yelp; and
•other digital marketplaces, such as Wag and the pet care offerings on Care.com in the United States, and small operators such as Gudog and Pawshake outside of the United States.
In addition, other companies with significantly greater resources than ours may enter the industry and we may not effectively compete against them.
We believe that our ability to compete effectively depends upon many factors both within and beyond our control, including:
•the popularity and adoption of online marketplaces to obtain services from individual pet care providers;
•the popularity, utility, ease of use, performance and reliability of our offerings compared to those of our competitors;
•our reputation and brand strength relative to our competitors;
•the prices of offerings and the fees we charge pet care providers on our platform;
•our ability to attract and retain qualified pet care providers;
•the perceived safety and cleanliness of offerings on our platform, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic;
•cancellation policies, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic;
•our ability, and the ability of our competitors, to develop new offerings and make acquisitions and investments;
•our ability to establish and maintain relationships with partners;
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•changes mandated by, or that we elect to make to address, legislation, regulatory authorities or litigation, including settlements, judgments, injunctions and consent decrees;
•our ability to attract, retain and motivate talented employees;
•our ability to raise additional capital; and
•acquisitions or consolidation within our industry.
Currently, our primary competition is from the friends, family and neighbors to whom pet parents often turn for pet care services within their personal networks. Given that online marketplaces offering pet care services are a relatively nascent business model and are rapidly evolving, reliance on personal networks is still prevalent. Current and potential competitors (including any new entrants into the market) may enjoy substantial competitive advantages over us, such as greater name recognition, longer operating histories, greater category share in certain markets, market-specific knowledge, established relationships with local pet parents and pet care providers and larger existing user bases in certain markets, more successful marketing capabilities and substantially greater financial, technical and other resources than we have. Competitors may be able to provide pet parents with a better or more complete experience and respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards, or pet care provider and pet parent requirements or preferences.
The pet care industry also may experience significant consolidation or the entrance of new players. Some of our competitors have and could further adopt aspects of our business model, which could affect our ability to differentiate our offerings from competitors. Increased competition could result in reduced demand for our platform from pet care providers and pet parents, slow our growth and materially adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition. Consolidation among our competitors could give them increased scale and may enhance their capacity, abilities and resources and lower their cost structures. In addition, emerging start-ups may be able to innovate and focus on developing a new product or service faster than we can or may foresee consumer need for new offerings or technologies before we do.
New offerings and initiatives can be costly and if we unsuccessfully pursue such offerings and initiatives, we may fail to grow and our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects would be materially adversely affected.
We plan to invest in new offerings that differentiate us from our competitors. For example, during 2022 we acquired GoodPup, an early-stage company that operates a virtual dog training platform, and made a small investment in an early-stage company with a complementary service offering, and have increased investment in the Rover blog, our pet-related blog, and The Rover Store, which offers Rover-branded merchandise for sale alongside third-party merchandise. Moreover, beginning in early March 2023, we launched Rover Gear, our first line of dog walking products and everyday essentials for pet parents. Developing new offerings increases our expenses and organizational complexity and we have and may continue to experience difficulties in developing these new offerings.
Our new offerings have a high degree of risk, as they may involve unproven businesses with which we have limited or no prior development or operating experience. There can be no assurance that consumer demand for such offerings will exist or be sustained at the levels that we anticipate, that we will be able to successfully manage the development and delivery of such offerings, or that any of these offerings will gain sufficient market acceptance to generate sufficient revenue to offset associated expenses or liabilities. For example, we previously introduced, then later deactivated, an on-demand dog walking offering and a grooming offering. It is also possible that offerings developed by others will render our offerings noncompetitive or obsolete. If we do not realize the expected benefits of our investments, we may fail to grow and our business, operating results and financial condition would be materially adversely affected.
We rely on internet search engines to drive traffic to our platform to grow revenue and if we are unable to drive traffic cost-effectively, it would materially adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our success depends in part on our ability to attract pet care providers and pet parents through unpaid internet search results on search engines. The vast majority of our unpaid internet search results comes from a single search platform. The number of pet care providers and pet parents that we attract to our platform from search engines is due in large part to how and where our website ranks in unpaid search results. These rankings can be affected by many factors, some of which are under our direct control that we may not execute effectively to retain prominent enough search rankings, but many of which are not under our direct control and may change frequently. As a result, links to our website or mobile applications may not be prominent enough to drive traffic to our website and we may not know how or otherwise be able to influence the results. In some instances, search
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engine companies may change these rankings in a way that promotes their own competing products or services or the products or services of one or more of our competitors. Search engines may also adopt a more aggressive auction-pricing system for paid search keywords that would cause us to incur higher advertising costs or reduce our market visibility to prospective pet parents. Any reduction in the number of pet care providers and pet parents directed to our platform due to search engines ranking our listings lower than they currently do could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
Further, we have used performance marketing products offered by search engines and social media platforms to distribute paid advertisements that drive traffic to our platform. A critical factor in attracting pet care providers and pet parents to our platform has been how prominently offerings are displayed in response to search queries for key search terms. The success of pet care services logistics and our brand has at times led to increased costs for relevant keywords as our competitors competitively bid on our keywords, including our brand name. We may not be successful in our efforts to drive traffic growth cost-effectively. If we are not able to effectively increase our traffic growth without increases in spend on performance marketing, our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
Maintaining and enhancing our brand reputation is critical to our growth and negative publicity could damage our brand, thereby harming our ability to compete effectively, which could materially adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
Maintaining and enhancing our brand reputation is critical to our ability to attract pet care providers, pet parents and employees, to compete effectively, to preserve and deepen the engagement of our existing pet care providers, pet parents and employees, to maintain and improve our standing in the communities where pet care providers operate, including our standing with community leaders and regulatory bodies, and to mitigate legislative or regulatory scrutiny, litigation and government investigations. We are heavily dependent on the perceptions of pet care providers and pet parents who use our platform to help make word-of-mouth recommendations that contribute to our growth. Negative perception of our platform or company may harm our reputation, brand and local network effects and could potentially lead to increased regulatory or litigation exposure, including as a result of:
•complaints or negative publicity (media reports, social media posts, and blogs) about us, our platform, pet parents, pet care providers, our third-party background check provider, third-party identity verification provider, or our policies and guidelines;
•illegal, negligent, reckless, or otherwise inappropriate behavior by pet care providers, pet parents or third parties;
•actual or rumored injuries or other incidents involving the safety or security of pets, pet care providers, pet parents, or other members of the public, including incidents that are mistakenly attributed to us and any resulting media coverage;
•a pandemic or an outbreak of disease, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, in which constituents of our network become infected;
•fraudulent activity and transactions on our platform;
•frequent or last-minute cancellations by pet care providers or pet parents;
•actual or perceived disruptions or defects in our platform, such as site outages, payment disruptions, privacy or data security breaches, other security incidents, or other actual or perceived incidents that may impact the reliability of our services;
•litigation over, or investigations by regulators into, our platform;
•users’ lack of awareness of, or compliance with, our policies;
•changes to our platform policies that users or others perceive as overly restrictive, permissive, unclear, or inconsistent with our values or mission;
•failure to enforce our policies in a manner that users perceive as effective, fair and transparent;
•an actual or perceived failure to comply with legal, tax and regulatory requirements;
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•a failure, or perceived failure, to act responsibly in a number of areas, including animal welfare, safety, data security, privacy and data protection, diversity and non-discrimination, concerns relating to the “gig” economy, litigation and response to regulatory activity and local communities;
•our current and future business partners or involvement with companies in which we have investments;
•a failure to operate our business in a way that is consistent with our values and mission;
•inadequate, untimely or unsatisfactory user support experiences or resolutions;
•illegal or otherwise inappropriate behavior by our management team or other employees or contractors;
•negative responses by pet parents or pet care providers to new services on our platform;
•a failure to register our trademarks and prevent or defend against misappropriation or third-party challenges to our existing or new trademarks;
•negative perception of our treatment of employees, pet parents, pet care providers, or of our response to employee, pet parents and pet care provider sentiment related to political or social causes or actions of management; or
•any of the foregoing with respect to our competitors, to the extent such resulting negative perception affects the public’s perception of us or our industry.
For example, as a result of past complaints and negative publicity, some pet care providers and pet parents have refrained from, and may in the future refrain from, offering services through our platform or using our platform.
In addition, we rely on pet parents to provide trustworthy reviews and ratings that other pet parents may rely upon to help decide whether or not to book a particular offering. We rely on these reviews to further strengthen trust among members of our community. Users of our platform may be less likely to rely on reviews and ratings if they believe that our review system does not generate trustworthy reviews and ratings. We have procedures in place to combat fraud or abuse of our review system, but cannot guarantee that these procedures are or will be effective. An actual or perceived failure of our review system could reduce trust within our community and damage our brand reputation and could materially adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
Actions by pet care providers or pet parents that are criminal, violent, inappropriate, dangerous, or fraudulent may undermine the safety or the perception of safety of our platform and materially adversely affect our reputation, our ability to attract and retain pet care providers and pet parents, business, operating results and financial condition.
We have no control over or ability to predict the specific actions of our users and other third parties during the time that pets or pet parents are with pet care providers or otherwise and cannot guarantee the safety of pets, pet care providers, pet parents and third parties. The actions of pets, pet care providers, pet parents and other third parties may result in pet and human injuries, fatalities, fraud, invasion of privacy, property damage, discrimination, or other harms, which have created and could continue to create brand reputational damage and potential legal or other substantial liabilities for us.
All new pet care providers on our platform in the United States and Canada undergo third-party background checks before they can offer their services on our platform. U.S. pet care providers are checked against national criminal offense databases, sex offender registries and certain regulatory, terrorist and sanctions watchlists. Starting early in the first quarter of 2022, any pet care provider in North America who creates a new profile is required to complete an enhanced background check. These enhanced checks are more comprehensive and include a manual search of county-level databases. In the United Kingdom and Western Europe, we use a third party to conduct identity verification on all pet care providers. Pet care provider profiles in all geographies are also subject to review and approval by our team of pet care provider specialists.
We do not verify the identity of, or require background checks for, pet parents, nor do we verify or require background checks for third parties who may be present during a service made through our platform. In addition, we do not currently and may not in the future require pet care providers to re-verify their identity or undergo subsequent background checks following the successful completion of their initial screening process. If a pet care provider engages in criminal activity after the third-party background check has been conducted, we may not be informed of such criminal activity and this pet care provider may continue offering services through our platform. If we choose to engage in more frequent background checks in the future, we may experience a decrease in pet care provider retention, which may adversely impact our platform.
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Our screening processes rely on, among other things, information provided by pet care providers and pet parents, the ability to validate that information, the accuracy, completeness and availability of the underlying information relating to criminal records, the digitization of certain records, the evolving regulatory landscape in this area, such as relating to data privacy, data protection and criminal background screening, and the effectiveness of third-party service providers that may fail to conduct such background checks adequately or disclose information that could be relevant to a determination of eligibility. These processes are beneficial, but not exhaustive and have limitations. If the background checks or identity verification checks are, or are perceived to be, inaccurate, insufficiently inclusive of relevant records or otherwise inadequate or below expectations, pet care providers who otherwise would be barred from using our platform may be approved to offer services via our platform and some pet care providers may be inadvertently excluded from our platform. There can be no assurances that the screening measures we use will significantly reduce criminal or fraudulent activity on our platform.
In addition, we do not independently verify the safety, suitability, location, quality, compliance with our policies or standards or legal compliance, of all pet care providers’ offerings for individual pets and pet parents or the suitability, qualifications, or credentials of pet care providers. Where we have undertaken the verification or screening of certain aspects of pet care provider qualifications and offerings, the scope of such processes may be limited and rely on, among other things, information provided by pet care providers and the ability of our internal teams or third-party vendors to adequately conduct such verification or screening practices. In addition, we do not take steps to re-verify or re-screen pet care provider qualifications or offerings following initial review. We have relied in the past and may continue in the future to rely on pet care providers and pet parents to disclose information relating to their offerings and such information may be inaccurate or incomplete. We have created policies and standards to respond to issues reported with offerings, but certain offerings may pose heightened safety risks to individual users because those issues have not been reported to us or because our customer support team has not taken the requisite action based on our policies. We rely, at least in part, on reports of issues from pet care providers and pet parents to investigate and enforce many of our policies and standards. In addition, our policies may not contemplate certain safety risks posed by offerings or by individual pet care providers or pet parents or may not sufficiently address those risks.
We also have faced or may face civil litigation, regulatory investigations and inquiries involving allegations of, among other things, unsafe or unsuitable offerings, discriminatory policies, data processing, practices or behavior on and off our platform or by pet care providers, pet parents and third parties, general misrepresentations regarding the safety or accuracy of offerings on our platform and other pet care provider, pet parent, or third-party actions that are criminal, violent, inappropriate, dangerous, or fraudulent. While we recognize that we need to continue to build trust and invest in innovations that will support trust when it comes to our policies, tools and procedures to protect pet care providers, pet parents and the communities in which pet care providers operate, we may not be successful in doing so. Similarly, offerings that are inaccurate, of a lower than expected quality, or that do not comply with our policies may harm pet parents and public perception of the quality and safety of offerings on our platform and materially adversely affect our reputation, business, operating results and financial condition.
We have a limited operating history in an evolving industry, which makes it difficult to evaluate prospects and may increase the risk that we will not be successful.
We launched operations in 2011 and since then have increased the number of local markets in which we offer services (including via expansion into Canada, the United Kingdom and Western Europe) and expanded our platform features and services. This limited operating history and our evolving business make it difficult to evaluate our prospects and the risks and challenges we may encounter. These risks and challenges include, amongst others disclosed in this “Risk Factors” section, our ability to:
•accurately forecast our revenue and plan our operating expenses;
•increase the number of and retain existing pet parents and pet care providers that use our platform;
•successfully compete with current and future competitors;
•successfully expand our business in existing markets and enter new markets and geographies;
•anticipate and respond to macroeconomic changes and changes in the markets in which we operate;
•maintain and enhance the value of our reputation and brand;
•adapt to rapidly evolving trends in the ways pet care providers and consumers interact with technology;
•avoid interruptions or disruptions in our service;
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•develop a scalable, high-performance technology infrastructure that can efficiently and reliably handle increased usage, as well as the deployment of new features and services;
•hire, integrate and retain talented technology, marketing, customer service and other personnel;
•effectively manage rapid growth in our personnel and operations; and
•effectively manage our costs.
If we fail to address the risks and difficulties that we face, including those associated with the challenges listed above as well as those described elsewhere in this “Risk Factors” section, our business, financial condition and operating results could be materially adversely affected.
We may experience significant fluctuations in our operating results and key business metrics, which make it difficult to forecast future results and could cause our stock price to decline.
Our operating results and key business metrics may vary significantly and are not necessarily an indication of future performance. We experience seasonal fluctuations in our operating results, Adjusted EBITDA and key business metrics such as bookings and GBV, which we expect to continue and which may become more extreme. See “Business—Seasonality.” Our operating results may fluctuate as a result of a variety of other factors, some of which are beyond our control such as the impacts resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and non-COVID illnesses. Moreover, we base our expense levels and investment plans on estimates for revenue that may turn out to be inaccurate and we may not be able to adjust our spending quickly enough if our revenue is less than expected, resulting in losses that exceed our expectations. If our assumptions regarding the risks and uncertainties that we use to plan our business are incorrect or change, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our operating results could differ materially from our expectations and our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. Investors should not rely on our operating results for any previous period as any indication of operating results or growth in future periods.
We base our decisions regarding expenditures in new pet parent acquisition in part on our analysis of the GBV generated from pet parents that we acquired in prior periods. Our estimates and assumptions may not accurately reflect future results and we may not be able to recover pet parent acquisition costs.
Our success depends on our ability to attract pet parents in a cost-effective manner. Our decisions regarding investments in pet parent acquisition substantially depend upon our analysis of the revenue generated from pet parents acquired in earlier periods. Our analysis regarding pet parent acquisition investment and revenue includes several assumptions. For example:
•We make various assumptions based on our historical data with respect to the rebooking rates of pet parents.
•While we believe the trends reflected by our various pet parent cohorts are illustrative of our pet parent base, the results of particular cohorts inherently reflect a distinct group of pet parents and may not be representative of our current or future composite group of pet parents or other monthly cohorts during a given year, particularly as we grow, our pet parent base broadens and we expand to new local markets.
•Our analysis focuses on support and acquisition marketing expenses incurred during the period in which the pet parents were originally acquired and makes various assumptions with respect to the level of additional marketing or other expenses necessary to maintain pet parent loyalty and generate booking activity in subsequent periods.
If our assumptions regarding our pet parent cohort behaviors, acquisition investment and resulting revenue from bookings, including those relating to the effectiveness of our marketing expenditures, prove incorrect, our ability to generate revenue from our investments in new pet parent acquisitions may be less than we have assumed and less than we have experienced in the past. As a result, we may need to adjust expenses or otherwise alter our strategy and our business, financial condition and operating results may be materially adversely affected.
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If the use of our platform in large metropolitan areas is negatively affected, our financial results and future prospects could be adversely impacted.
We derive a significant portion of our bookings and historically have generated a significant portion of our growth in more densely populated urban areas. Our business and financial results may be susceptible to economic, social and regulatory conditions or other circumstances that tend to impact such areas. An economic downturn, increased competition, or regulatory obstacles in these areas could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results to a much greater degree than would the occurrence of such events in other areas. Further, we expect to continue to face challenges in penetrating lower-density suburban and rural areas, where our network is smaller and finding matches is more difficult, the cost of pet ownership is lower, and alternative pet care providers may be more convenient. If we are not successful in penetrating suburban and rural areas, or if we are unable to operate in certain key metropolitan areas in the future, our ability to serve what we consider to be our total addressable market would be limited and our business, financial condition and operating results would suffer.
Risks Related to Regulation and Taxation
If pet care providers are reclassified as employees under applicable law or new laws are passed causing the reclassification of pet care providers as employees or otherwise adopting employment-like restrictions with regard to pet care providers who use our platform, our business would be materially adversely affected.
We are subject to claims, lawsuits, arbitration proceedings, administrative actions, government investigations and administrative audits, and other legal and regulatory proceedings at the U.S. federal, state and municipal levels challenging the classification of pet care providers that use our platform as independent contractors. We may also become subject to similar claims and audits in Canada, the United Kingdom and Western Europe, or other international geographies where we may offer our platform in the future.
For example, representative actions, including actions under California’s Private Attorney General Act, or PAGA, have been filed against us alleging that we misclassified pet care providers in California as independent contractors in violation of the California Labor Code. In one of the actions, Melanie Sportsman v. A Place for Rover, Inc., the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, granted our motion for summary judgment and entered judgment in our favor, but the plaintiff appealed the court’s dismissal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. We recently entered into a settlement agreement with the named plaintiff pursuant to which we will make a total payment of $18.0 million in full and final settlement of all claims that the named plaintiff and members of a proposed settlement class are bringing or could bring in the litigation. The settlement terms do not require us to reclassify pet care providers in California as employees, and in agreeing to the settlement terms we are not admitting any wrongdoing or liability. See Note 11—Commitments and Contingencies under the subsection titled “Litigation and Other Contingencies” in our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Part I, Item 1 of this report for a more detailed discussion of the representative actions.
In addition, we are currently involved in administrative audits with state employment agencies, including audits related to pet care provider classification. For example, the Washington Department of Labor & Industries, or L&I, opened an audit that resulted in a determination that pet care providers who use the Rover platform are “covered workers” for purposes of workers compensation coverage and made an assessment against us for alleged premium contributions, penalties, and interest owed for calendar year 2017. We have prevailed on three successive appeals of this assessment, most recently to Washington Superior Court, which affirmed a board decision that pet care providers who use the Rover platform are, at most, independent contractors. L&I has appealed the prior decisions in our favor to the Washington Court of Appeals. More recently, L&I opened a second workers’ compensation audit covering the second quarter of 2019 through the first quarter of 2022. This second audit is on hold pending the outcome of the 2017 assessment appeal.
The tests governing whether a service provider is an independent contractor or an employee vary by governing law and are typically highly fact sensitive. Laws and regulations that govern the status and classification of independent contractors are subject to changes and divergent interpretations by various authorities, which can create uncertainty and unpredictability for us. We maintain that pet care providers who use the Rover platform are our customers and, as such, are at most independent contractors, and we intend to continue to defend ourselves vigorously in these matters. Nevertheless, there can be no guarantee that our defenses will be successful in all jurisdictions, and pet care providers may be reclassified as employees, especially in light of the evolving rules and restrictions on service provider classification and their potential impact on participants in the “gig economy.”
In the United States, national, state and local governmental authorities have enacted or pursued and may in the future enact and pursue, measures designed to regulate the gig economy. For example, in 2019 the California Assembly passed AB-5, which
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codified a narrow worker classification test that has had the effect of treating many “gig economy” workers as employees. AB-5 includes a referral agency exemption that specifically applies to animal services and dog walking and grooming. While we believe that pet care providers who use the Rover platform fall within such exemption, interpretation or enforcement of the exemption varies. In addition, other jurisdictions (including in international geographies where we offer, or in the future may offer, our platform) could pursue similar laws that do not include such exemptions and which, if applied to our platform, could adversely impact our platform’s availability and our business.
The costs associated with defending, settling, or resolving pending and future lawsuits (including demands for arbitration) and governmental audits relating to the classification of pet care providers have been and may continue to be material to our business. Furthermore, costs and impacts to our business resulting from changes we may make to our platform and operations in order to ensure compliance with evolving legal frameworks may become material. For example, as a result of the Sportsman settlement agreement, we agreed to modify our platform to make certain changes applicable to pet care providers in California to bolster the classification of pet care providers who use the Rover platform as independent contractors under California law.
A reclassification of service providers as employees and claims or settlements of proceedings alleging misclassification could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results, including as a result of:
•monetary exposure arising from or relating to alleged failure to comply with tax withholding and payment obligations, wage and hour laws and requirements (such as those pertaining to unpaid wages and failure to pay minimum wage and overtime, to reimburse for expenses, or to provide required breaks and wage statements), including statutory and punitive damages, penalties and government fines;
•injunctions prohibiting continuance of existing business practices;
•claims for employee benefits (including equity incentives), social security, workers’ compensation and unemployment;
•claims of discrimination, harassment and retaliation under civil rights laws;
•claims under laws pertaining to unionizing, collective bargaining and other concerted activity;
•increasing our cost of doing business to a level that is unsustainable;
•other claims, charges, or proceedings under laws and regulations applicable to employers and employees, including risks relating to allegations of joint employer liability or agency liability; and
•harm to our reputation and brand.
In addition to the harms listed above, a reclassification of pet care providers as employees would require us to significantly alter our existing business model and operations (including by suspending, ceasing or curtailing operations in impacted jurisdictions) and impact our ability to add and retain pet care providers to our platform and grow our business, which we would expect to have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.
Our business is subject to a variety of laws and regulations, many of which are unsettled and still developing, and failure to comply with such laws and regulations could subject us to claims or otherwise materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, or operating results.
Online marketplaces offering pet care services are a relatively nascent business model and are rapidly evolving. We are or may become subject to a variety of laws in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Western Europe, and other jurisdictions. Laws, regulations and standards governing issues such as worker classification, labor and employment, anti-discrimination, animal safety, home-based pet care licensing and regulation, online payments, gratuities, pricing and commissions, subscription services, intellectual property, background and identity verification checks, algorithm-based discrimination and tax are often complex and subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity. The scope and interpretation of these laws and whether they are applicable to us are often uncertain and may be conflicting, including varying standards and interpretations among countries, between state or province and federal law, between individual states or provinces and even at the city and municipality level. As a result, their application in practice may change or develop over time through judicial decisions or as new guidance or interpretations are provided by regulatory and governing bodies. We have been proactively working with state and local governments and regulatory bodies to ensure that our platform is available broadly.
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Laws relating to the potential liability of providers of online services for activities of their users and other third parties are currently being tested by a number of claims, including actions based on invasion of privacy and other torts, unfair competition, copyright and trademark infringement and other theories based on the nature and content of the materials searched, the ads posted, or the content provided by users. In addition, regulatory authorities in the United States at the federal and state levels are considering a number of legislative and regulatory proposals concerning privacy and other matters that may be applicable to our business. It is also likely that if our business grows and evolves and our services are used in a greater number of geographies, we would become subject to laws and regulations in additional jurisdictions. It is difficult to predict how existing laws would be applied to our business and the new laws to which it may become subject.
In the United States, money transmission is subject to various state and federal laws and the rules and regulations are enforced by multiple authorities and governing bodies, including numerous federal, state and local agencies who may define money transmission differently. Outside of the United States, we are subject to additional laws, rules and regulations related to the provision of payments and financial services, and if we expand into new jurisdictions, the laws, regulations and regulators to which we are subject to will expand as well. Noncompliance with such regulations may subject us to fines or other penalties in one or more jurisdictions levied by federal or state or local regulators, including state Attorneys General, as well as those levied by foreign regulators. In addition to fines, penalties for failing to comply with applicable rules and regulations could include criminal and civil proceedings, forfeiture of significant assets or other enforcement actions. We could also be required to make changes to our business practices or compliance programs as a result of regulatory scrutiny. Recent financial, political and other events may increase the level of regulatory scrutiny on larger companies, technology companies in general, and companies engaged in dealings with independent service providers or otherwise viewed as part of the “gig economy.” Legislative, regulatory, and administrative bodies may enact new laws or promulgate new regulations that are adverse to our business, or they may view matters or interpret laws and regulations differently than they have in the past or in a manner adverse to our business, including by changing employment-related laws or by enacting employment-like regulations with regard to dual-sided marketplaces like our platform. In addition, regulatory scrutiny or action may create different or conflicting obligations on us from one jurisdiction to another, which creates additional challenges to managing our business.
Our success, or perceived success, and increased visibility may also drive some businesses that perceive our business model as a threat to their services or otherwise negatively to raise their concerns to local policymakers and regulators. These businesses and their trade association groups or other organizations may take actions and employ significant resources to shape the legal and regulatory regimes in jurisdictions where we may have, or seek to have, a market presence in an effort to change such legal and regulatory regimes in ways intended to adversely affect or impede our business and the ability of pet parents and pet care providers to use our platform.
If we are not able to comply with these laws or regulations or if we become liable under these laws or regulations, including any future laws or regulations that we may not be able to fully anticipate at this time, we could be materially adversely affected and we may be forced to implement new measures to reduce our exposure to this liability. This may require us to expend substantial resources or to discontinue certain services or platform features, which would adversely affect our business. Any failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations could also subject us to claims and other legal and regulatory proceedings (including class, collective or other representative actions), fines, or other penalties, criminal and civil proceedings, forfeiture of significant assets and other enforcement actions. In addition, the increased attention to liability issues as a result of lawsuits and legislative proposals could adversely affect our reputation or otherwise impact the growth of our business. Any costs incurred to prevent or mitigate this potential liability are also expected to adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
Government regulation of the Internet, mobile devices and e-commerce is evolving and unfavorable changes could substantially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
We are subject to general business regulations and laws as well as regulations and laws specifically governing the Internet, mobile devices and e-commerce that are constantly evolving. Existing and future laws and regulations, or changes thereto, may impede the growth of the Internet, mobile devices, e-commerce, or other online services and increase the cost of providing online services, require us to change our business practices, or raise compliance costs or other costs of doing business. These regulations and laws, which continue to evolve, may address taxation, tariffs, privacy, data retention and protection, data security, pricing and commissions, content, copyrights, distribution, social media marketing, advertising practices (including targeted ads and behavioral advertising), sweepstakes, mobile, electronic contracts and other communications, consumer protection, text messaging, Internet and mobile application access to our offerings and the characteristics and quality of online offerings, the provision of online payment services and the characteristics and quality of services. It is not always clear how existing laws governing issues such as property ownership, sales, use and other taxes, libel and personal privacy apply to the
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Internet and e-commerce. In addition, as we continue to expand internationally, it is possible that foreign government entities may seek to censor content available on our mobile applications or website or may even attempt to block access to our mobile applications and website. Compliance with these laws could render some of our business practices less effective or more costly to maintain, and any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with any of these laws or regulations could result in damage to our reputation and brand, a loss in business and proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities or others, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
We are subject to regulatory inquiries, claims, lawsuits, investigations, various proceedings and other disputes and face potential liability and expenses for legal claims, which could materially adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
We are or may become subject to claims, lawsuits, arbitration proceedings, government investigations and other legal, regulatory and administrative proceedings, including those involving pet or personal injury, death or illness, property damage, worker classification, pay model, labor and employment, unemployment insurance benefits, workers’ compensation, anti-discrimination, commercial disputes, competition, pet care provider and pet parent complaints, intellectual property disputes, compliance with regulatory requirements, data security, advertising practices, tax issues and other matters, and we may become subject to additional types of claims, lawsuits, government investigations and legal or regulatory proceedings as our business grows and as we acquire or deploy new products and services.
We have in the past been, are currently, and may in the future be the subject of regulatory and administrative investigations, audits and inquiries conducted by federal, state, or local governmental agencies. Results of investigations, audits and inquiries and related governmental action are inherently unpredictable and, as such, there is always the risk of an investigation, audit, or inquiry having a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and operating results, particularly if an investigation, audit, or inquiry results in a lawsuit or unfavorable regulatory enforcement or other action. Regardless of outcome, these matters can have an adverse impact on us in light of the costs associated with cooperating with, or defending against, such matters and the diversion of management resources and other factors.
We are also subject to claims, lawsuits and other legal proceedings seeking to hold us vicariously liable for the actions of pets, pet parents and pet care providers. In the ordinary course of business, our Trust and Safety team receives claims pursuant to the Rover Guarantee Program, as well as claims and threats of legal action that arise from pet sitting services booked through the Rover website or applications. Various parties have from time to time claimed and may claim in the future, that we are liable for damages related to accidents or other incidents involving pets, pet parents, pet care providers and third parties. For example, third parties have asserted legal claims against us in connection with personal injuries related to pet or human safety issues or accidents caused by pet care providers or animals. We have incurred expenses to settle personal injury claims, which we sometimes choose to settle for reasons including implementation of the Rover Guarantee Program, customer goodwill, expediency, protection of our reputation and to prevent the uncertainty of litigating. We expect that such expenses will continue to increase as our business grows and it faces increasing public scrutiny. Pending or threatened legal proceedings could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, or operating results. Regardless of the outcome of any legal proceeding, any injuries to, or deaths of, any pet parents, pet care providers, animals, or third parties could result in negative publicity and harm to our brand, reputation, business, financial condition and operating results.
We face potential liability and expense for claims relating to the information that we publish on our website and mobile applications, including claims for trademark and copyright infringement, defamation, libel and negligence, among others. Our platform also relies upon content that is created and posted by pet care providers, pet parents, or other third parties. Claims of defamation, disparagement, negligence, warranty, personal harm, intellectual property infringement, or other alleged damages could be asserted against us, in addition to pet care providers and pet parents. While we rely on a variety of statutory and common-law frameworks and defenses, including those provided by the DMCA, the CDA, the fair-use doctrine in the United States and the E-Commerce Directive in the European Union, differences between statutes, limitations on immunity, requirements to maintain immunity and moderation efforts in the many jurisdictions in which we operate may affect our ability to rely on these frameworks and defenses, or create uncertainty regarding liability for information or content uploaded by pet care providers and pet parents or otherwise contributed by third-parties to our platform. Moreover, regulators in the United States and in other countries may introduce new regulatory regimes, such as a potential repeal or amendment of CDA Section 230, that increase potential liability for information or content available on our platform. For example, in the United States, laws such as the CDA, which have previously been interpreted to provide substantial protection to interactive computer service providers, may change and become less predictable or unfavorable by legislative action or juridical interpretation. There have been various federal legislative efforts to restrict the scope of the protections available to online platforms under the CDA, in particular with regards to Section 230 of the CDA, and current protections from liability for third-party content in the United
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States could decrease or change. We could incur significant costs investigating and defending such claims and, if we are found liable, significant damages.
The results of any such claims, lawsuits, arbitration proceedings, government investigations, or other legal or regulatory proceedings cannot be predicted with any degree of certainty. Any claims against us, whether meritorious or not, could be time-consuming, result in costly litigation, be harmful to our reputation, require significant management attention and divert significant resources. Determining reserves for our pending litigation is a complex and fact-intensive process that requires significant subjective judgment and speculation. It is possible that a resolution of one or more such proceedings could result in substantial damages, settlement costs, fines and penalties that could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. These proceedings could also result in harm to our reputation and brand, sanctions, consent decrees, injunctions, or other orders requiring a change in our business practices. Further, under certain circumstances, we have contractual and other legal obligations to indemnify and to incur legal expenses on behalf of our business and commercial partners and current and former directors and officers.
Our use of arbitration and class action waiver provisions subjects us to reputational risks and may not be enforceable, which could increase our litigation costs and adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
We include arbitration and class action waiver provisions in our terms of service with the pet parents and pet care providers that use our platform. These provisions are intended to streamline the litigation process for all parties involved, as they can in some cases be faster and less costly than litigating disputes in state or federal court. However, arbitration can be costly and the use of arbitration and class action waiver provisions subjects us to certain risks to our reputation and brand, as these provisions have been the subject of increasing public scrutiny. Frequent reliance on arbitration provisions could also subject us to mass arbitration actions. In order to minimize these risks, we may choose to limit our use of arbitration and class action waiver provisions or be required to do so in a legal or regulatory proceeding, either of which could cause an increase in our litigation costs and exposure. Additionally, we permit certain users of our platform to opt out of such provisions, which could also cause an increase in our litigation costs and exposure.
Further, with the potential for conflicting rules regarding the scope and enforceability of arbitration and class action waivers on a state-by-state basis, as well as between state, federal and international law, there is a risk that some or all of our arbitration and class action waiver provisions could be subject to challenge or may need to be revised to exempt certain categories of protection. If these provisions were found to be unenforceable, in whole or in part, or specific claims are required to be exempted, we could experience an increase in our costs to litigate disputes and the time involved in resolving such disputes and we could face increased exposure to potentially costly lawsuits, each of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
We are subject to governmental economic and trade sanctions laws and regulations which could result in liability and negatively affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
We are required to comply with economic and trade sanctions and export controls administered by governments where we operate, including the U.S. government (including without limitation regulations administered and enforced by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, and the U.S. Department of Commerce), the Council of the European Union and the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation of His Majesty’s Treasury in the United Kingdom, or OFSI. These economic and trade sanctions prohibit or restrict transactions to or from or dealings with certain specified countries, regions, their governments and, in certain circumstances, their nationals and with individuals and entities that are specially-designated, such as individuals and entities included on OFAC’s List of Specially Designated Nationals, or SDN List), subject to EU/UK asset freezes, or other sanctions measures. For example, as a result of Russia’s military action in Ukraine, governmental authorities in the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom, among others, launched an expansion of coordinated sanctions and export control measures, including sanctions against certain individuals and entities and prohibiting or limiting certain financial and commercial transactions. Any future economic and trade sanctions imposed in jurisdictions where we have significant business could materially adversely impact our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our ability to track and verify transactions and otherwise to comply with these regulations requires a high level of internal controls. We maintain policies and procedures to implement these internal controls, which we periodically assess and update to the extent we identify compliance gaps. Our internal policies and procedures require that we report to OFAC on payments we have rejected or blocked pursuant to OFAC sanctions regulations and on any possible violations of those regulations. Our policies also require that we report to OFSI on dealings with persons subject to EU/UK sanctions. There is a risk that, despite the internal controls that we have in place, we may have inadvertently engaged in or could in the future engage in dealings with
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persons sanctioned under applicable sanctions laws and that our internal controls could be less than fully effective at implementing the new and any possible future sanctions that relate to Russia’s military action in Ukraine. Any non-compliance with economic and trade sanctions laws and regulations or related investigations could result in claims or actions against us and materially adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
We are subject to various U.S. and international anti-corruption laws and other anti-bribery and anti-kickback laws and regulations.
We are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, or the FCPA, and other anti-corruption, anti-bribery and anti-money laundering laws in the jurisdictions in which we do business, both domestic and abroad. These laws generally prohibit us and our employees from improperly influencing government officials or commercial parties in order to obtain or retain business, direct business to any person, or gain any improper advantage. The FCPA and other applicable anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws also may hold us liable for acts of corruption and bribery committed by our third-party business partners, representatives and agents who are acting on our behalf. We and our third-party business partners, representatives and agents may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities and we may be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of these third-party business partners and intermediaries and our employees, representatives, contractors and agents, even if it does not explicitly authorize such activities.
These laws also require that we keep accurate books and records and maintain internal controls and compliance procedures designed to prevent any such actions. While we have policies and procedures to address compliance with such laws, we cannot assure that our employees and agents will not take actions in violation of our policies or applicable law, for which we may be ultimately held responsible and our exposure for violating these laws increases as our international presence expands and as we increase sales and operations in foreign jurisdictions. Any violation of the FCPA or other applicable anti-bribery, anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws could result in whistleblower complaints, adverse media coverage, investigations, imposition of significant legal fees, loss of export privileges, severe criminal or civil sanctions, or suspension or debarment from U.S. government contracts, substantial diversion of management’s attention, a drop in our stock price, or overall adverse consequences to our business, all of which may have an adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition and operating results.
Taxing authorities may successfully assert that we have not properly collected, or in the future should collect, sales and use, gross receipts, value-added, or similar taxes and may successfully impose additional obligations on us and any such assessments, obligations, or inaccuracies could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
The application of non-income, or indirect, taxes, such as sales and use tax, value-added tax, goods and services tax, business tax and gross receipt tax, to businesses like ours is a complex and evolving issue. Many of the fundamental statutes and regulations that impose these taxes were established before the adoption and growth of the Internet and e-commerce. Significant judgment is required on an ongoing basis to evaluate applicable tax obligations and as a result, amounts recorded are estimates and are subject to adjustments. In many cases, the ultimate tax determination is uncertain because it is not clear how new and existing statutes might apply to our business.
In addition, governments are increasingly looking for ways to increase revenue, which has resulted in discussions about tax reform and other legislative action to increase tax revenue, including through indirect taxes. Such taxes could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
We are subject to indirect taxes, such as payroll, sales and use, value-added and goods and services taxes, and we may face various indirect tax audits in various U.S. and foreign jurisdictions. We believe that we remit indirect taxes in all relevant jurisdictions in which we generate taxable sales, based on our understanding of the applicable laws in those jurisdictions. However, tax authorities may raise questions about, or challenge or disagree with, our calculation, reporting, or collection of taxes and may require us to collect taxes in jurisdictions in which we do not currently do so or to remit additional taxes and interest and could impose associated penalties and fees. A successful assertion by one or more tax authorities requiring us to collect taxes in jurisdictions in which we do not currently do so or to collect additional taxes in a jurisdiction in which we currently do so, could result in substantial tax liabilities, including taxes on past sales, as well as penalties and interest, could discourage pet parents and pet care providers from utilizing our offerings, or could otherwise harm our business, financial condition and operating results. Further, even where we are collecting taxes and remitting them to the appropriate authorities, we may fail to accurately calculate, collect, report and remit such taxes. Additionally, if we or pet care providers try to pass along increased additional taxes and raise fees or prices to pet parents, booking volume may decline.
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As a result of these and other factors, the ultimate amount of tax obligations owed may differ from the amounts recorded in our financial statements and any such difference may adversely affect our operating results in future periods in which we change our estimate of tax obligations or in which the ultimate tax outcome is determined.
We may have exposure to greater than anticipated tax liabilities.
We are subject to income taxes in the United States and certain foreign jurisdictions. Our effective tax rate could be materially adversely affected by changes in the mix of earnings and losses in countries with differing statutory tax rates, certain non-deductible expenses and the valuation of deferred tax assets. Increases in our effective tax rate would reduce profitability or increase losses. As we expand the scale of our international business activities, any changes to U.S. or international taxation of such activities may substantially increase our worldwide effective tax rate, lead to volatility with respect to tax expenses and liabilities from period to period, and materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. For example, beginning in 2022, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminates the option to deduct research and development expenditures in the period incurred and requires taxpayers to capitalize and amortize such expenditures over five or fifteen years, as applicable, pursuant to Section 174 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code. The change did not result in the recognition of any U.S. federal tax liability in 2022, as a result of our ability to utilize U.S. federal net operating loss carryforwards. However, we recognized incremental state tax liability and expense as a result of limitations on the use of state net operating loss carryforwards. If the requirement to capitalize Section 174 expenditures is not modified, it may also significantly impact our effective tax rate and our cash tax liability in future years. Further, the Inflation Reduction Act imposes a 1% excise tax on certain stock buybacks by publicly traded corporations, which will increase the costs associated with our stock repurchase program.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, and its member countries which includes the United States, have been focused for an extended period on issues related to the taxation of multinational corporations, such as the comprehensive plan set forth by the OECD to create an agreed set of international tax rules for preventing base erosion and profit shifting. The current framework for overhauling the taxation of multinational corporations includes, among other things, profit reallocation rules and a 15% global minimum corporate income tax rate. Similarly, the European Commission and several countries have issued proposals that would change various aspects of the current tax framework under which we are taxed. These proposals include changes to the existing framework to calculate income tax, as well as proposals to change or impose new types of non-income (including indirect) taxes, including taxes based on a percentage of revenue.
We have been subject to examination and may be subject to examination in the future, by federal, state, local and foreign tax authorities on income, employment, sales and other tax matters. While we regularly assess the likelihood of adverse outcomes from such examinations and the adequacy of our provision for taxes, there can be no assurance that such provision is sufficient and that a determination by a tax authority would not have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited, which could adversely impact our financial condition and operating results.
As of December 31, 2022, we had accumulated approximately $253.5 million, $135.6 million and $5.2 million of gross federal, state and non-U.S. net operating loss carryforwards, or NOLs, respectively. These NOLs are available to reduce future taxable income with approximately $74.1 million of gross federal NOLs beginning to expire in 2031 and gross state NOLs beginning to expire in 2028. Under the legislation commonly referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, or the Tax Act, as amended by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or the CARES Act, NOLs from taxable years that began after December 31, 2017 may offset no more than 80% of current year taxable income for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2020. NOLs arising in taxable years ending after December 31, 2017 can be carried forward indefinitely, but NOLs generated in tax years ending before January 1, 2018 will continue to have a two-year carryback and 20-year carryforward period. It is possible that we will not generate sufficient taxable income in time to use some or all NOLs before their expiration.
Under Section 382 of the Code, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change NOLs to offset its post-change taxable income may be limited. In general, an “ownership change” will occur if there is a cumulative change in our ownership by “5 percent stockholders” that exceeds 50 percentage points over a rolling three-year period. Similar rules may apply under state tax laws. We are in the process of performing an assessment of whether a change in control has occurred or whether there have been multiple changes in control, within the meaning of Section 382. Any ownership changes are not currently expected to materially limit the net operating loss carryforwards and research and
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development credits available to offset our tax liabilities. In the event that it is determined that we have in the past experienced an ownership change, or if we experience one or more ownership changes as a result of future transactions in our stock, our ability to use NOLs to reduce future taxable income and liabilities may be subject to annual limitations as a result of prior ownership changes and ownership changes that may occur in the future.
There is also a risk that our existing NOLs or tax credits could expire or otherwise be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities, either as the result of regulatory changes issued, possibly with retroactive effect, by various jurisdictions seeking to raise revenue, or for other unforeseen reasons.
We expect to use a significant amount of cash to satisfy tax withholding obligations in connection with RSU vesting.
We must remit cash to relevant taxing authorities to satisfy obligations in respect to income taxes and social security contributions related to employee RSU vesting. Through 2022, we funded these obligations through “sell-to-cover” transactions, where shares with a market value equivalent to the tax withholding obligation were sold into the market. Beginning in 2023, we adopted a policy to use cash on our balance sheet to satisfy these obligations and withhold shares with a corresponding value from employees. Although this policy reduces stockholder dilution compared to “sell-to-cover” transactions, it does represent a significant use of cash and may adversely affect our financial condition.
Risks Related to Privacy and Technology
We have been subject to cybersecurity attacks in the past and anticipate being the target of future attacks. Any actual or perceived breach of security or security incident or privacy or data protection breach or violation could interrupt our operations, harm our brand and adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition and operating results.
Our business involves the collection, storage, processing and transmission of personal data and other sensitive and proprietary data of pet parents and pet care providers. Additionally, we maintain, and third-party service providers on our behalf maintain, sensitive and proprietary information relating to our business, such as our own proprietary information, other confidential information and personal data relating to individuals such as our employees. An increasing number of organizations, including those with significant online operations, have disclosed breaches of their systems and other information security incidents, some of which have involved sophisticated and highly targeted attacks. We, and our third-party service providers, have experienced and may in the future experience such attacks. In addition, these incidents can originate on our vendors’ systems, which can then be leveraged to access our systems, further preventing our ability to successfully identify and mitigate the attack.
The risks associated with a malicious insider compromising our information systems and infrastructure have grown in light of the greater adoption of remote work as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We also have a distributed community support organization including third-party providers that have access to personal data. Other companies have suffered incidents involving such insiders exfiltrating the personal data of customers, stealing corporate trade secrets and key financial metrics, and illegally diverting funds. No series of measures can fully safeguard against a sufficiently determined and skilled insider threat.
Because techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to or to sabotage information systems change frequently and may not be known until launched against us, we may be unable to anticipate or prevent these attacks, react in a timely manner, or implement adequate preventive measures and we may face delays in our detection or remediation of, or other responses to, security breaches and other privacy-, data protection- and security-related incidents. In addition, users on our platform could have vulnerabilities on their own devices that are unrelated to our systems and platform but could mistakenly be attributed to us. Further, breaches experienced by other companies may also be leveraged against us. For example, credential stuffing attacks, which involve the automated injection of stolen username and password pairs into login forms in order to fraudulently gain access to user accounts, are becoming increasingly common and sophisticated actors can mask their attacks, making them increasingly difficult to identify and prevent. Bad actors using stolen credentials have directly targeted and may continue to directly target users of our platform with attempts to breach their Rover accounts, which can result in takeovers of their accounts for the purpose of perpetrating fraud against them, other users, or our platform. Users of our platform have experienced, and may continue to experience, incidents of fraud on our platform involving credential stuffing attacks and account takeovers, which we may not be able to detect or prevent. Victims of such takeovers may seek recovery from us or we may offer reimbursement of funds lost through fraud, and we have incurred and may continue to incur losses from claims by pet parents and pet care providers, which losses may be substantial. The ability of bad actors to cause an account takeover exposes us to financial fraud risk, including costly litigation, which is difficult to fully mitigate. We have taken and continue to take measures to detect and prevent account takeovers and fraud, but these measures need to be continually improved and may add
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friction to our booking process, which could adversely impact bookings. These measures may also not be effective against fraud and illegal activities, particularly given new and continually evolving forms of circumvention. If these measures do not succeed in reducing fraud, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
Although we have developed systems and processes that are designed to protect data of pet parents and pet care providers that use our platform, protect our systems and the proprietary, sensitive and confidential information we maintain, prevent data loss, and prevent other security breaches and security incidents, these security measures have not fully protected against such matters in the past and cannot guarantee security in the future. The IT and infrastructure used in our business may be vulnerable to cyberattacks or security breaches, and data, including personal data and other sensitive and proprietary data of pet parents and pet care providers, our employees’ personal data, or our other sensitive, confidential or proprietary data that it maintains or that otherwise is accessible through those systems may be rendered unavailable or subject to loss, compromise, or unauthorized use, disclosure, or other processing. Employee error, malfeasance, or other errors in the storage, use, or transmission of any of these types of data could result in an actual or perceived privacy, data protection, or security breach or other security incident. We also face the risk of computer viruses, ransomware, or other malware being introduced to such IT and infrastructure. Although we have policies and practices restricting access to the personal data we store, there is a risk that these policies may not be effective in all cases.
Any actual or perceived breach of privacy or data protection, or any actual or perceived security breach or other incident that impacts our platform or systems, other IT and infrastructure used in our business, or data maintained or processed in our business, could interrupt our operations, result in our platform being unavailable, result in loss or unavailability of, or improper access to, or acquisition, disclosure, or other processing of, data, result in fraudulent transfer of funds, harm our reputation, brand and competitive position, damage our relationships with third-party partners, result in significant claims, litigation, regulatory investigations and proceedings (including ongoing monitoring by regulators), fines, penalties, and increased credit card processing fees and other costs and liabilities, or result in the loss of pet parents’ and pet care providers’ confidence in, or decreased use of, our platform, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. Any actual or perceived breach of privacy, data protection or security, or other security incident, impacting any entities with which we share or disclose data (including, for example, our third-party technology providers) could have similar effects. Further, any cyberattacks or actual or perceived security, privacy or data protection breaches and other incidents directed at, or suffered by, our competitors could reduce confidence in our industry and, as a result, reduce confidence in us.
We have incurred and will continue to incur significant costs in an effort to detect and prevent privacy, data protection and security breaches and other privacy-, data protection- and security-related incidents, and we may face increased costs and requirements to expend substantial resources if an actual or perceived privacy, data protection, or security breach or other incident occurs. While we maintain cyber insurance that may help provide coverage for these types of incidents, our insurance may not adequately cover costs and liabilities related to any incidents, and may not continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all, and any insurer may deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could adversely affect our business, reputation, results of operations and financial condition.
Changes in laws or regulations relating to privacy, data protection, or the protection or transfer of data relating to individuals, or any actual or perceived failure by us to comply with such laws and regulations or any other obligations relating to privacy, data protection or the protection or transfer of data relating to individuals, could adversely affect our business.
We receive, transmit and store a large volume of personal information and other data relating to users on our platform, as well as personal information and other data relating to individuals such as our employees. Numerous local, municipal, state, federal and international laws and regulations address privacy and the collection, storing, sharing, use, disclosure and protection of certain types of data, including the California Online Privacy Protection Act, Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act, Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation, the EU ePrivacy Directive, the EU General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or the TCPA, and similar state laws, Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act and the the CCPA, the CPRA and similar laws in other states. For example, the TCPA and its state counterparts restrict certain telemarketing activities, including the use of automated SMS text messages without proper consent. This has resulted, and may in the future result, in civil claims against us. We could also face regulatory enforcement by federal and state agencies. These laws, rules and regulations evolve frequently and their scope may continually change, through new legislation, amendments to existing legislation and changes in enforcement and may be inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another.
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For example, the GDPR, which became effective on May 25, 2018, has resulted and will continue to result in significant compliance burdens and costs for companies like ours. The GDPR regulates our collection, use, and other processing of personal data of European Union residents, referred to as personal data, and imposes stringent data protection requirements with significant penalties and the risk of civil litigation, for noncompliance. Failure to comply with the GDPR may result in fines of up to 20 million Euros or up to 4% of annual global revenue, whichever is greater. It may also lead to civil litigation, with the risks of damages or injunctive relief, or regulatory orders adversely impacting the ways in which our business can use personal data.
In addition, the United Kingdom has implemented legislation similar to the GDPR, referred to as the UK GDPR, which provides for fines of up to the greater of 17.5 million British Pounds and 4% of global turnover. The relationship between the United Kingdom and the EU in relation to certain aspects of data protection law remains unclear, and these changes will lead to additional costs and increase our risk exposure. On June 28, 2021, the European Commission announced a decision of “adequacy” concluding that the United Kingdom ensures an equivalent level of data protection to the GDPR, providing some relief regarding the legality of continued personal data flows from the European Economic Area, or EEA, to the United Kingdom. Uncertainty remains, as this adequacy determination must be renewed after four years and may be modified or revoked in the interim. The United Kingdom’s recent statements about its intent to replace the UK GDPR cast the adequacy determination further into doubt.
Additionally, we are or may become subject to laws, rules and regulations regarding cross-border transfers of personal data, including those relating to transfer of personal data outside the EEA, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Recent legal developments have created complexity and uncertainty regarding transfers of personal data from these regions to the United States and other jurisdictions; for example, on July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union, or CJEU, invalidated the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, or the Privacy Shield, under which personal data could be transferred from the EEA to U.S. entities that had self-certified under the Privacy Shield scheme. While the CJEU upheld the adequacy of the standard contractual clauses (a standard form of contract approved by the European Commission as an adequate personal data transfer mechanism), it noted that reliance on them may not necessarily be sufficient in all circumstances. In addition to other mechanisms (particularly standard contractual clauses), in limited circumstances we may rely on Privacy Shield certifications of third parties (for example, vendors and partners). On June 4, 2021, the European Commission issued new SCCs that are required to be implemented, and on February 2, 2022, the United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office issued new standard contractual clauses to support personal data transfers from the United Kingdom that are also required to be implemented. Continually evolving requirements have created uncertainty and increased the risk around our international operations. We may, in addition to other impacts, be required to review and amend the legal mechanisms by which we make or receive personal data transfers to the United States and other jurisdictions, to engage in new contract negotiations with third parties that aid in processing personal data on our behalf or localize certain personal data, to localize certain personal data, and to incur additional costs associated with increased compliance burdens.
As the enforcement landscape further develops, we could suffer additional costs, complaints and/or regulatory investigations or fines, have to stop using certain tools and vendors, and make other operational changes. If we are otherwise unable to transfer personal information between and among countries and regions in which we operate, it could affect the manner in which we provide our services, the geographical location or segregation of our relevant systems and operations, and could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
The CCPA, as amended by the CPRA, among other things, requires covered companies to provide disclosures to California consumers and affords such consumers abilities to opt out of certain sharing and sales of personal information, including through user-enabled global privacy controls. The law also prohibits covered businesses from discriminating against consumers for exercising their CCPA rights. The CCPA imposes severe statutory damages as well as a private right of action for certain data breaches. This private right of action is expected to increase the likelihood of, and risks associated with, data breach litigation. The CPRA further expands the CCPA with additional data privacy compliance requirements that may impact our business and establishes a regulatory agency dedicated to enforcing those requirements. In addition, other states have enacted data privacy laws that may apply to us. For instance, the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act took effect on January 1, 2023, the Colorado Privacy Act and the Connecticut Data Privacy Act take effect July 1, 2023, and the Utah Consumer Privacy Act becomes effective on December 31, 2023. These laws have certain similarities, but include their own compliance requirements.
Aspects of the interpretation and enforcement of these laws remain uncertain. Comprehensive privacy laws have also been proposed in other states and at the federal level, reflecting a trend toward more stringent privacy legislation in the United States, with potentially greater penalties and more rigorous compliance requirements relevant to our business. The effects of such laws are significant and may require us to modify our data processing practices and policies and incur substantial compliance-related costs and expenses. Additionally, many laws and regulations relating to privacy and the collection, storing, sharing, use,
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disclosure, protection, and other processing of certain types of data are subject to varying degrees of enforcement and new and changing interpretations by courts. Current or new laws or regulations, or evolving interpretations of their requirements, may require significant changes to our operations, our security measures and infrastructure, and our platform, or prevent us from providing our platform in jurisdictions in which we currently operate and in which we may operate in the future.
Additionally, we have incurred and may continue to incur significant expenses in an effort to comply with privacy, data protection and information security standards and protocols imposed by law, regulation, industry standards, or contractual obligations. For example, certain laws regulate the use of cookies and other tracking technologies, which could limit the effectiveness of our marketing activities, impact our search engine rankings, divert technology personnel resources, increase costs, and subject us to additional liabilities. Furthermore, publication of our privacy statement and other policies regarding privacy, data protection and data security may subject us to investigation or enforcement actions by regulators if those statements or policies are found to be deficient, lacking transparency, deceptive, unfair, or misrepresentative of our practices. We are also bound by contractual obligations related to privacy, data protection and data security and our efforts to comply with such obligations may not be successful or may have other negative consequences. Such efforts may not be successful or may have other negative consequences. In particular, with such laws and regulations imposing new and relatively burdensome obligations and with substantial uncertainty over the interpretation and application of these and other laws and regulations, we may face challenges in addressing their requirements and making necessary changes to our policies and practices and may incur significant costs and expenses in an effort to do so.
Despite our efforts to comply, it is possible that our interpretations of the law, practices, or platform could be inconsistent with, or fail or be alleged to fail to meet all requirements of, applicable laws, regulations, or obligations. Our failure, or the failure by our third-party providers, pet parents, or pet care providers on our platform, or consequences associated with our efforts to comply with applicable laws or regulations or any other obligations relating to privacy, data protection, or information security, or any compromise of security that results in unauthorized access to, or use or release of data relating to pet care providers, pet parents or other individuals, or the perception that any of the foregoing types of failure or compromise has occurred, could damage our reputation, discourage new and existing pet care providers and pet parents from using our platform, or result in fines or other penalties, investigations, or proceedings by governmental agencies and private claims and litigation, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. Even if not subject to legal challenge, the perception of concerns relating to privacy, data protection, or information security, whether or not valid, may harm our reputation and brand and adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
Systems defects and failures and resulting interruptions in the availability of our website, mobile applications, or platform could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
Our success depends on pet parents and pet care providers being able to access our platform at any time. Our systems, or those of third parties upon which we rely, may experience service interruptions or degradation or other performance problems because of hardware and software defects, bugs or malfunctions, distributed denial-of-service and other cyberattacks, infrastructure changes, human error, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, natural disasters, power losses, disruptions in telecommunications services, fraud, military or political conflicts, terrorist attacks, computer viruses, ransomware, malware, or other events. Our systems also may be subject to break-ins, sabotage, theft and intentional acts of vandalism, including by our own employees. Some of our systems are not fully redundant and our disaster recovery planning may not be sufficient for all eventualities. Our business interruption insurance may not be sufficient to cover all of our losses that may result from interruptions in our service as a result of systems failures and similar events.
We have experienced and will likely continue to experience system failures and other events or conditions from time to time that interrupt the availability or reduce or affect the speed or functionality of our platform. Minor interruptions can result in new pet parent acquisition losses that are never recovered. Affected users could seek monetary recourse from us for their losses and such claims, even if unsuccessful, would likely be time-consuming and costly for us to address. Further, in some instances, we may not be able to identify the cause or causes of these performance problems within an acceptable period of time. Any failure to maintain performance, reliability, speed, security, and availability of our platform, services, and technical infrastructure to the satisfaction of pet parents and pet care providers may harm our business and reputation and our ability to retain existing, and attract new, pet parents and pet care providers.
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We primarily rely on Amazon Web Services to deliver our services to users on our platform and any disruption of or interference with our use of Amazon Web Services could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
We currently rely on Amazon Web Services, or AWS, to host our platform and support our operations. We do not have control over the operations of the facilities of AWS that we use. The facilities of AWS are vulnerable to damage or interruption from natural disasters, extreme heat or cold spells or other adverse weather events, cybersecurity attacks, terrorist attacks, power outages and similar events or acts of misconduct. Our platform’s continuing and uninterrupted performance is critical to our success. We have experienced, and expect that in the future we will experience, interruptions, delays and outages in service and availability from time to time due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, human or software errors, website hosting disruptions and capacity constraints. In addition, any changes in AWS’ service levels may adversely affect our ability to meet the requirements of users on our platform.
As our platform’s continuing and uninterrupted performance is critical to our success, sustained or repeated system failures would reduce the attractiveness of our platform. It may become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve our performance, especially during peak usage times, as we expand the usage of our platform. Any of the above circumstances or events may harm our reputation and brand, reduce the availability or usage of our platform, lead to a significant short-term loss of revenue, increase our costs and impair our ability to attract new users, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
We rely on third-party payment service providers to process payments made by pet parents and payments made to pet care providers on our platform. If these third-party payment service providers become unavailable or insolvent, our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
We rely on several third-party payment service providers, including payment card networks, banks, payment processors and payment gateways, to link us to payment card and bank clearing networks to process payments made by pet parents and payments made to pet care providers through our platform. We also rely on these third-party providers to address our compliance with various laws, including money transmission regulations. If these companies become unwilling or unable to provide these services to us on acceptable terms, fail to transmit payments owed to us in a timely manner or at all, become insolvent or enter bankruptcy, or regulators take action against them or us, our business may be substantially disrupted. In such case, we would need to find an alternate payment service provider and we may not be able to secure similar terms or replace such payment service provider in an acceptable time frame. If we need to migrate to alternative or integrate additional third-party payment service providers for any reason, the transition or addition would require significant time and management resources, may not be as effective, efficient, or well-received by pet care providers and pet parents or adequately address regulatory requirements, and could impact our cash flows. Any of the foregoing risks related to third-party payment service providers, including with regard to compliance with money transmission rules in any jurisdiction in which we operate, could cause us to incur significant losses and, in certain cases, require us to make payments to pet care providers out of our funds, which could materially adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
In addition, the software and services provided by our third-party payment service providers may fail to meet our expectations, contain errors or vulnerabilities, be compromised, and have and may continue to experience outages or delays. Any of these risks could cause, and have caused, us to lose our ability to accept online payments or other payment transactions or facilitate timely payments to pet care providers on our platform, which could make our platform less convenient and desirable to customers and adversely affect our ability to attract and retain pet care providers and pet parents. Compromise of, or default by, a third party payment provider also could result in loss of funds by Rover or by pet care providers.
Increased fees charged by third-party payment service providers and their ability to hold our cash as a reserve or suspend processing activities could materially adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
For certain payment methods, including credit and debit cards, we pay interchange and other fees and such fees result in significant costs. Payment card network costs have increased and may continue to increase in the future, the interchange fees and assessments that they charge for each transaction that accesses their networks and may impose special fees or assessments on any such transaction. Our payment card processors have the right to pass any increases in interchange fees and assessments on to us. Credit card transactions result in higher fees to us than transactions made through debit cards. We also face a risk of increased transaction fees and other fines and penalties if we fail to comply with payment card industry security standards. Any material increase in interchange fees in the United States or other geographies, including as a result of changes in interchange fee limitations imposed by law in some geographies, or other network fees or assessments, or a shift from payment with debit
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cards to credit cards could increase our operating costs and materially adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
Moreover, our agreements with payment service providers may allow these companies, under certain conditions, to hold an amount of our cash as a reserve. They may be entitled to a reserve or suspension of processing services upon the occurrence of specified events, including material adverse changes in our business, operating results and financial condition. An imposition of a reserve or suspension of processing services by one or more of our processing companies could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
We rely on third parties to provide some of the software or features for our platform and depend on the interoperability of our platform across third-party applications and services. If these third parties were to interfere with the distribution of our platform or with our use of their software, our business would be materially adversely affected.
If the third parties we rely upon cease to provide access to the third-party software that we, pet parents and pet care providers use, do not provide access to the software on terms that we believe to be attractive or reasonable, or do not provide us with the most current version of the software, we may be required to seek comparable software from other sources, which may be more expensive or inferior, or may not be available at all, any of which would adversely affect our business. For example, we rely on Google Maps for maps and location data that are core to the functionality of our platform, and telecommunication service providers for voice calls and SMS, and we integrate applications, content and data from third parties to deliver our platform and services. Third-party applications, products and services are constantly evolving and we may not be able to maintain or modify our platform to ensure its compatibility with third-party offerings following development changes. If we lose such interoperability, experience difficulties or increased costs in integrating our offerings into alternative devices or systems, or manufacturers or operating systems elect not to include our offerings, make changes that degrade the functionality of our offerings, or give preferential treatment to competitive products, the growth of our community and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
We rely on mobile operating systems and application marketplaces to make our applications available and if they modify their policies, or if we do not effectively operate with or receive favorable placements within such application marketplaces and maintain high user reviews, our usage or brand recognition could decline and our business, financial results and operating results could be materially adversely affected.
We depend in part on mobile operating systems, such as Android and iOS and their respective application marketplaces, to make our applications available to pet parents and pet care providers that use our platform. Any changes in such systems and application marketplaces that degrade the functionality of our applications, give preferential treatment to our competitors’ applications or limit our ability to market to our customers could adversely affect our platform’s usage on mobile devices. If such mobile operating systems or application marketplaces limit or prohibit us from making our applications available to pet parents and pet care providers, make changes that degrade the functionality of our applications, increase the cost to users or to us of using such mobile operating systems or application marketplaces or our applications, impose terms of use unsatisfactory to us, or modify their search or ratings algorithms in ways that are detrimental to us, or if our competitors’ placement in such mobile operating systems’ application marketplace is more prominent than the placement of our applications, our user growth could slow, pause or decline. Our applications have experienced fluctuations in the past and we anticipate similar fluctuations in the future. In addition, these application marketplaces may modify their guidelines and policies at any time, which has imposed and could continue to impose a significant burden on us, prevented and may in the future prevent us from rolling out updates to our applications, or impair our ability to collect or store information we rely on for marketing, measurement, analytics or other business purposes. Any of the foregoing risks could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
As new mobile devices and mobile platforms, as well as entirely new tech platforms, are developed and released, there is no guarantee that certain devices will continue to support our platform or effectively roll out updates to our applications. Additionally, in order to deliver high-quality applications, we need to ensure that our platform is designed to work effectively with a range of mobile technologies, systems, networks and standards. We may not be successful in developing or maintaining relationships with key participants in the mobile industry that enhance users’ experience. If pet parents or pet care providers that use our platform encounter any difficulty accessing or using our applications on their mobile devices or if we are unable to adapt to changes in popular mobile operating systems, we expect that our user growth and user engagement would be materially adversely affected.
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Our platform contains third-party open source software components and failure to comply with the terms of the underlying open source software licenses could restrict our ability to provide our platform.
Our platform contains software modules licensed to us by third-party authors under “open source” licenses. Use and distribution of open source software may entail greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide support, warranties, indemnification, or other contractual protections regarding infringement claims or the quality of the code. In addition, the public availability of such software may make it easier for others to compromise our platform.
Some open source licenses contain requirements that may, depending on how the licensed software is used or modified, require that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon the licensed open source software, authorize further modification and redistribution of that source code, make that source code available at little or no cost, or grant other licenses to our intellectual property. If we combine our proprietary software with open source software in a certain manner, we could, under certain open source licenses, be required to release the source code of our proprietary software under the terms of an open source software license. This could enable our competitors to create similar offerings with lower development effort and time and ultimately could result in a loss of our competitive advantages. Alternatively, to avoid the release of the affected portions of our source code, we could be required to purchase additional licenses, expend substantial time and resources to re-engineer some or all of our software or cease use or distribution of some or all of our software until we can adequately address the concerns.
We also release certain of our proprietary software modules to the public under open source licenses. Although we have certain policies and procedures in place to monitor our use of open source software that are designed to avoid subjecting our platform to conditions we do not intend, those policies and procedures may not be effective to detect or address all such conditions. In addition, the terms of many open source licenses have not been interpreted by U.S. or foreign courts and there is a risk that these licenses could be construed in a way that could impose unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to provide or distribute our platform. From time to time, there have been claims challenging the ownership of open source software against companies that incorporate open source software into their solutions. As a result, we could be subject to lawsuits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software.
If we are held to have breached or failed to fully comply with all the terms and conditions of an open source software license, we could face infringement or other liability, or be required to seek costly licenses from third parties to continue providing our platform on terms that are not economically feasible, to re-engineer our platform, to discontinue or delay the provision of our platform if re-engineering could not be accomplished on a timely basis, or to make generally available, in source code form, our proprietary code, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
Failure to adequately protect our intellectual property could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
Our business depends on our intellectual property, the protection of which is crucial to the success of our business. We rely on a combination of trademarks (including registered trademarks in the United States and foreign jurisdictions), copyrights, trade secrets, license agreements, intellectual property assignment agreements and confidentiality procedures to protect our intellectual property. In addition, we attempt to protect our intellectual property, technology and confidential information by requiring our employees and consultants who develop intellectual property on our behalf to enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements and third parties with whom we share information to enter into nondisclosure agreements. These agreements may not effectively prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of our confidential information, intellectual property, or technology and may not provide an adequate remedy in the case of unauthorized use or disclosure of our confidential information or technology, or infringement of our intellectual property. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties have and may continue to copy aspects of our platform or other software, technology and functionality or obtain and use information that we consider proprietary. In addition, unauthorized parties may also attempt, or successfully endeavor, to obtain our intellectual property, confidential information and trade secrets through various methods, including through scraping of public data or other content from our website or mobile applications, cybersecurity attacks and legal or other methods of protecting this data may be inadequate.
Competitors have and may continue to adopt service names or trade dress similar to ours, thereby harming our ability to build brand identity and possibly leading to user confusion. In addition, there could be potential trade name or trademark
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infringement claims brought by owners of other trademarks that are similar to our trademarks. Litigation or proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office or other governmental authorities and administrative bodies in the United States and abroad may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights and to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. Further, we may not timely or successfully register our trademarks or otherwise secure our intellectual property. Our efforts to protect, maintain, or enforce our proprietary rights may not be respected in the future or may be invalidated, circumvented, or challenged and could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
Intellectual property infringement assertions by third parties could result in significant costs and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results and reputation.
We operate in an industry with frequent intellectual property litigation. Other parties have asserted, and in the future may assert, that we have infringed their intellectual property rights. We could be required to pay substantial damages or cease using intellectual property or technology that is deemed infringing.
Further, we cannot predict whether other assertions of third-party intellectual property rights or claims arising from such assertions would substantially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. The defense of these claims and any future infringement claims, whether they are with or without merit or are determined in our favor, may result in costly litigation and diversion of technical and management personnel. Further, an adverse outcome of a dispute may require us to pay damages, potentially including treble damages and attorneys’ fees if we are found to have willfully infringed a party’s patent or copyright rights, cease making, licensing, or using products that are alleged to incorporate the intellectual property of others, expend additional development resources to redesign our offerings and enter into potentially unfavorable royalty or license agreements in order to obtain the right to use necessary technologies. Royalty or licensing agreements, if required, may be unavailable on terms acceptable to us, or at all. In any event, we may need to license intellectual property which would require us to pay royalties or make one-time payments. Even if these matters do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor or without significant cash settlements, the time and resources necessary to resolve them could adversely affect our business, reputation, financial condition and operating results.
We may be unable to continue to use the domain names that we use in our business or prevent third parties from acquiring and using domain names that infringe on, are similar to, or otherwise decrease the value of our brand, trademarks, or service marks.
We have registered domain names that we use in, or are related to, our business, most importantly www.rover.com. If we lose the ability to use a domain name, whether due to trademark claims, failure to renew the applicable registration, or any other cause, we may be forced to market our offerings under a new domain name, which could cause us substantial harm, or to incur significant expense in order to purchase rights to the domain name in question. We may not be able to obtain preferred domain names outside the United States due to a variety of reasons, including because they are already held by others. In addition, our competitors and others could attempt to capitalize on our brand recognition by using domain names similar to our domain names. We may be unable to prevent third parties from acquiring and using domain names that infringe on, are similar to, or otherwise decrease the value of our brand or our trademarks or service marks. Protecting, maintaining and enforcing our rights in our domain names may require litigation, which could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources, which could in turn adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
Risks Related to Our Operations
We depend on our highly skilled employees to grow and operate our business and if we are unable to hire, retain, manage and motivate our employees, or if our new employees do not perform as anticipated, we may not be able to grow effectively and our business, financial condition and operating results could be materially adversely affected.
Our future success will depend in part on the continued service of our senior management team, key technical employees and other highly skilled employees, including Aaron Easterly, our co-founder and chief executive officer, Brent Turner, our chief operating officer and president, and Charlie Wickers, our chief financial officer, and on our ability to continue to identify, hire, develop, motivate and retain talented employees. Our U.S.-based employees, including our senior management team, work for us on an at-will basis and there is no assurance that any such employee will remain with us. Any changes in our senior management team or our failure to engage in effective succession planning may be disruptive to our business.
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We face intense competition for highly skilled employees. For example, competition for engineering talent is particularly intense and engineering support is particularly important for our business. To attract and retain top talent, we have offered and believe we will need to continue to offer competitive compensation and benefits packages, including by keeping pace with substantial market increases and inflation. Our competitors may be successful in recruiting and hiring members of our management team or other key employees and it may be difficult for us to find suitable replacements on a timely basis, on competitive terms, or at all. If we are unable to attract and retain the necessary employees, particularly in critical areas of our business, we may not achieve our strategic goals. Recent job market dynamics, where the number of workers who quit their job in a single month has broken multiple all-time U.S. records since early 2021 — referred to as the “Great Resignation” —increased the challenge of employee retention.
Job candidates and existing employees often consider the value of the equity awards they receive in connection with their employment. If the perceived or actual value of our equity awards declines, it may adversely affect our ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees. On the other hand, our employees may receive significant proceeds from sales of our equity which may reduce their motivation to continue to work for us. We may need to invest significant amounts of cash and equity to attract and retain new employees and expend significant time and resources to identify, recruit, train and integrate such employees and we may never realize returns on these investments. If we are unable to effectively manage our hiring needs or successfully integrate new hires, our efficiency, ability to meet forecasts and employee morale, productivity and engagement could suffer, which could adversely affect business, financial conditions and operating results.
Our company culture has contributed to our success and if we cannot maintain and evolve our culture as we grow, our business could be materially adversely affected.
We believe that our company culture has been critical to our success. We face many challenges that may affect our ability to sustain our corporate culture, including:
•failure to identify, attract, reward and retain people in leadership positions in our organization who share and further our culture, values and mission;
•the growth in size and geographic diversity of our workforce;
•competitive pressures to move in directions that may divert us from our mission, vision and values;
•the impact on employee morale resulting from our recently adopted remote-first work policy;
•the impact on employee morale created by geopolitical and macroeconomic events, public stock market volatility, and general public company criticism;
•the continued challenges of a rapidly evolving industry;
•the increasing need to develop expertise in new areas of business that affect us;
•negative perception of our treatment of employees, pet parents, pet care providers, or our response to employee sentiment related to political or social causes or actions of management; and
•the integration of new personnel and businesses from acquisitions.
If we are not able to maintain and evolve our culture, our business, financial condition and operating results could be materially adversely affected.
Our support function is critical to the success of our platform and any failure, or perceived failure, to provide high-quality service and support could materially adversely affect our ability to retain our existing pet care providers and pet parents and attract new ones.
Meeting the support expectations of pet care providers and pet parents requires significant time and resources from our support team and significant investment in staffing, technology (including automation and machine learning to improve efficiency), infrastructure, policies and support tools. The failure to develop the appropriate technology, infrastructure, policies and support tools, to hire new operations personnel in a manner that keeps pace with our continued growth, or to manage or properly train our support team, could compromise our ability to resolve questions and complaints quickly and effectively. As part of our 2020 workforce reduction, we significantly reduced the number of employees in our support organization and our technology
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organization, and since the beginning of 2021 it has been necessary to rapidly increase such personnel, which impacts, or could in the future impact, our ability to provide effective support.
Our service is staffed based on complex algorithms that map to our business forecasts. Any volatility or errors in judgment in those forecasts could lead to staffing gaps that could impact the quality of our service. We have in the past experienced and may in the future experience backlog incidents that lead to substantial delays or other issues in responding to requests for customer support, which may reduce our ability to effectively retain pet care providers and pet parents.
The majority of our customer contact volume typically is serviced by a limited number of third-party service providers. We rely on our internal team and these third parties to provide timely and appropriate responses to the inquiries of pet care providers and pet parents that come to us via telephone, email, social media and chat. Reliance on these third parties requires that we provide proper guidance and training for our employees, maintain proper controls and procedures for interacting with our community, and ensure acceptable levels of quality and customer satisfaction are achieved. Failure to appropriately allocate functions to these third-party service providers or to maintain suitable training, controls and procedures could materially adversely impact our business. Further, if the third-party service providers terminate their relationship with us or refuse to renew their agreements with us on commercially reasonable terms, we may need to find alternate third-party service providers and may not be able to secure similar terms or experience or replace such providers or provide proper guidance and training in an acceptable timeframe, which could adversely impact our ability to timely and appropriately support pet care providers and pet parents.
We provide support and help to mediate disputes between pet care providers and pet parents. We rely on information provided by pet care providers and pet parents and are at times limited in our ability to provide adequate support or help resolve disputes due to our lack of information or control. To the extent that our users are not satisfied with the quality or timeliness of our support or third-party support, we may not be able to retain pet care providers or pet parents and our reputation as well our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
When a pet care provider or pet parent has a poor experience on our platform, we may issue refunds or coupons for future bookings, or other customer service gestures of monetary value. These refunds and coupons are generally treated as a reduction to revenue, and we may make payouts for property damage and personal and animal injury claims under the Rover Guarantee Program. A robust support effort is costly and we expect such costs to continue to rise in the future as we grow our business and implement new product offerings. We have historically seen a significant number of support inquiries from pet care providers and pet parents. Our efforts to reduce the number of support requests as we scale the business may not be effective and we could incur increased costs without corresponding revenue, which would materially adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
We rely on a third-party background check provider and a third-party identification provider to screen potential pet care providers and if such providers fail to provide accurate information or we do not maintain business relationships with them, our business, financial condition and operating results could be materially adversely affected.
In the United States and Canada, we rely on a single third-party background check provider to provide or confirm the criminal and other records of potential pet care providers to help identify those that are not eligible to use our platform pursuant to our internal standards and applicable law, and in the United Kingdom and Western Europe we rely on a single identity verification provider. Our business may be materially adversely affected to the extent such providers do not meet their contractual obligations, our expectations, or the requirements of applicable laws or regulations. If either of our third-party background check provider or our identity verification provider terminates its relationship with us or refuses to renew its agreement with us on commercially reasonable terms, we may need to find an alternate provider and may not be able to secure similar terms or replace such partners in an acceptable timeframe. If we cannot find alternate providers on terms acceptable to us, we may not be able to timely onboard potential pet care providers and as a result, our platform may be less attractive to potential pet care providers and we may have difficulty finding enough pet care providers to meet pet parent demand.
We rely primarily on third-party insurance policies to insure our operations-related risks. If our insurance coverage is insufficient for the needs of our business or our insurance providers are unable to meet their obligations, we may not be able to mitigate the risks facing our business, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
We procure third-party insurance policies to cover various operations-related risks, including general liability, auto liability, excess and umbrella liability, employment practices liability, workers’ compensation, property, cybersecurity and data
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breaches, crime and fiduciary liability, and directors’ and officers’ liability. For certain risks, including certain business interruption losses, such as those resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic or future risks related to our new and evolving services, we may not be able to, or may choose not to, acquire insurance, or such insurance may not cover all claims. For example, claims arising from misclassification of contractors are excluded from our employer’s liability policy. In addition, we may have to pay high premiums, self-insured retentions, or deductibles for the coverage we do obtain. Additionally, if any of our insurance providers become insolvent, such provider would be unable to pay any operations-related claims that we make. Further, some of our agreements with vendors require that we procure certain types of insurance and if we are unable to obtain and maintain such insurance, we would be in violation of the terms of these vendor agreements.
Insurance providers have raised premiums and deductibles for many businesses and may do so again in the future. As a result, our insurance and claims expense could increase, or we may decide to raise our deductibles or self-insured retentions when our policies are renewed or replaced. Our business, financial condition and operating results could be materially adversely affected if the cost per claim, premiums, or the number of claims significantly exceeds our historical experience or coverage limits, we experience a claim in excess of our coverage limits, our insurance providers fail to pay on our insurance claims, we experience a claim for which coverage is not provided, or the number of claims under our deductibles or self-insured retentions differs from historical averages.
While the Rover Guarantee Program is a commercial agreement with pet parents and pet care providers for which we are primarily responsible, we rely on our general liability insurance policy to provide coverage to us for claims and losses subject to the Rover Guarantee Program that exceed our self-insured retention. Increased claim frequency and severity and increased fraudulent claims could result in greater payouts, premium increases, or difficulty securing coverage. Further, disputes with pet care providers as to whether the Rover Guarantee Program applies to alleged losses or damages and the increased submission of fraudulent payment requests could require significant time and financial resources.
We may face difficulties as we expand our operations into new local markets in which we have limited or no prior operating experience.
Our capacity for continued growth depends in part on our ability to expand our operations into and compete effectively in new local markets, including in geographies outside of the United States, and new offerings. It may be difficult for us to accurately predict pet parent preferences and purchasing habits in new local markets. In addition, each market has unique regulatory dynamics. These include laws and regulations that can directly or indirectly affect our ability to operate, the pool of pet care providers that are available and our costs associated with insurance, support, fraud and onboarding new pet care providers. Each market also is subject to distinct competitive and operational dynamics. These include our ability to provide more attractive offerings than alternative options, to provide effective customer support and to efficiently attract and retain pet parents and pet care providers, all of which affect our sales, operating results and key business metrics. We may experience fluctuations in our operating results due to changing dynamics in the local markets in which we operate. If we invest substantial time and resources to expand our operations and are unable to manage these risks effectively, our business, financial condition and operating results could be materially adversely affected.
Our headquarters and other essential business operations could face catastrophic events, including those from natural or climate change-related disasters, that may disrupt and harm our operations.
Our headquarters and certain other essential customer support operations are located in Washington state, which is a seismically active region. We maintain additional customer support operations in Texas, which is a state subject to hurricanes and tropical storms. Certain pet parents, pet care providers, remote employees and third-party customer service support personnel live in areas where the risk of natural or climate-related disaster or other catastrophic losses exists, and the occasional incidence of such an event could cause substantial damage to us, pet parents, pet care providers, employees, third-party customer service support personnel or the surrounding area. The occurrence of a natural or climate-related disaster such as an earthquake, drought, flood, fire (such as the recent wildfires in Washington and in the western United States and Canada), hurricane, heat wave, tropical storm, localized extended outages of critical utilities or transportation systems, or any critical resource shortages could negatively impact bookings on our platform, adversely impact our ability to provide timely customer service, and cause a significant interruption in our business, damage or destroy our facilities or those of service providers on which we rely, and cause us to incur significant costs, any of which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. The insurance policies we maintain may not cover such losses or may not be adequate to cover losses in any particular case.
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Our presence outside the United States and any future international expansion strategy will subject us to additional costs and risks and our plans may not be successful.
We opened our platform in Canada in 2017 and in the United Kingdom and Western Europe in 2018, and we may continue to expand our international operations. We are a growing platform with pet care providers in over 29,000 neighborhoods globally as of December 31, 2022. Operating outside of the United States requires significant management attention to oversee operations over a broad geographic area with varying cultural norms and customs, in addition to placing strain on our finance, analytics, compliance, legal, engineering and operations teams. We may incur significant operating expenses and may not be successful in our international expansion for a variety of reasons, including:
•recruiting and retaining talented and capable employees in foreign countries and maintaining our company culture across all of our offices;
•an inability to attract pet care providers and pet parents;
•an inability to effectively scale Rover brand awareness outside the United States;
•competition from local providers that better understand the local market, may market and operate more effectively and may enjoy greater local affinity or awareness;
•differing demand dynamics, which may make our platform less successful;
•an inability to successfully tailor our product offerings to different cultural customs and norms;
•complying with varying laws and regulatory standards, including with respect to labor and employment, data privacy, data protection, and information security, tax and local regulatory restrictions;
•obtaining any required government approvals, licenses, or other authorizations;
•varying levels of Internet and mobile technology adoption and infrastructure;
•currency exchange restrictions or costs and exchange rate fluctuations;
•operating in jurisdictions that do not protect intellectual property rights in the same manner or to the same extent as the United States;
•public health concerns or emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and other highly communicable diseases or viruses, outbreaks of which have from time to time occurred and which may occur, in various parts of the world in which we operate or may operate in the future; and
•limitations on the repatriation and investment of funds as well as foreign currency exchange restrictions.
Our limited experience in operating our business internationally increases the risk that any potential future expansion efforts that we may undertake may not be successful. If we invest substantial time and resources to expand our operations internationally and are unable to manage these risks effectively, our business, financial condition and operating results could be materially adversely affected.
International expansion also may increase our risks in complying with various laws and standards, including with respect to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, export controls and trade and economic sanctions.
The failure to successfully execute and integrate acquisitions could materially adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
As part of our business strategy, we will continue to consider a wide array of potential strategic transactions, including acquisitions of businesses, new technologies, services and other assets and strategic investments that complement our business. For example, we recently consummated a small acquisition of GoodPup, an early-stage company that operates a virtual dog training platform, and made a small investment in another early-stage company with a complementary service offering. We have previously acquired and continue to evaluate targets that operate in relatively nascent markets and as a result, there is no assurance that such acquired businesses will be successfully integrated into our business or generate substantial revenue. Acquisitions involve numerous risks, any of which could harm our business and negatively affect our financial condition and operating results, including:
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•intense competition for suitable acquisition targets, which could increase prices and adversely affect our ability to consummate deals on favorable or acceptable terms;
•failure or material delay in closing a transaction;
•transaction-related lawsuits or claims;
•difficulties in integrating the technologies, operations, existing contracts and personnel of an acquired company;
•difficulties in retaining key employees or business partners of an acquired company;
•difficulties in retaining merchants, consumers and service providers, as applicable, of an acquired company;
•challenges with integrating the brand identity of an acquired company with our own;
•diversion of financial and management resources from existing operations or alternative acquisition or investment opportunities;
•failure to realize the anticipated benefits or synergies of a transaction;
•failure to identify the problems, liabilities, or other shortcomings or challenges of an acquired company or technology, including issues related to intellectual property, regulatory and tax compliance practices, litigation, revenue recognition or other accounting practices, or employee or user issues;
•risks that regulatory bodies may enact new laws or promulgate new regulations that are adverse to an acquired company or business;
•risks that regulatory bodies do not approve our acquisitions or business combinations or delay such approvals;
•theft of our trade secrets or confidential information that we share with potential acquisition candidates;
•risk that an acquired company or investment in new services cannibalizes a portion of our existing business; and
•adverse market reaction to an acquisition.
If we fail to address the foregoing risks or other problems encountered in connection with past or future acquisitions of businesses, new technologies, services and other assets and strategic investments, or if we fail to successfully integrate such acquisitions or investments, our business, financial condition and operating results could be materially adversely affected.
We may require additional capital to support business growth and this capital might not be available on acceptable terms, or at all.
To support our growing business and to effectively compete, we must have sufficient capital to continue to make significant investments in our platform. We intend to continue to make investments to support our business growth and may require additional funds to respond to business challenges, including the need to develop new platform features and services or enhance our existing platform, improve our operating infrastructure, or acquire complementary businesses and technologies. Although we currently anticipate that our existing cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities and cash flow from operations will be sufficient to meet our working capital and capital expenditure needs for at least the next 12 months, we may require additional financing over the long-term. Accordingly, we may need to engage in equity or debt financings to secure additional funds. If we raise additional funds through future issuances of equity, equity-linked securities, or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution and any new securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges superior to those of current equity investors. If we raise additional funds through the incurrence of indebtedness, then we may be subject to increased fixed payment obligations and could be subject to restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. Any additional future indebtedness we may incur may result in terms that could be unfavorable to our equity investors.
We evaluate financing opportunities from time to time and our ability to obtain financing will depend, among other things, on our development efforts, business plans and operating performance and the condition of the capital markets at the time we seek financing. Volatility in the equity capital markets or a decline in the market price of our securities also could adversely affect our ability to issue additional equity securities or to obtain additional financing in the future to fund business operations or
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future growth plans. We may not be able to obtain additional financing on terms favorable to us, if at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our ability to continue to support our business growth and to respond to business challenges could be impaired and our business, financial condition and operating results may be materially adversely affected.
Our application for the Paycheck Protection Program Loan could in the future be determined to have been impermissible or could result in damage to our reputation.
In April 2020, we entered into a certain Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, Promissory Note and Agreement with Silicon Valley Bank, pursuant to which we received loan proceeds of $8.1 million, or the PPP Loan. The PPP Loan was subject to the terms and conditions of the PPP, which was established under the CARES Act and is administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration, or the SBA. The PPP loan application required us to certify, among other things, that the “current economic uncertainty” made the PPP Loan request “necessary” to support our ongoing operations. We made this certification in good faith after analyzing, among other things, the maintenance of our workforce, our need for additional funding to continue operations, the severe impact of COVID-19 on our revenue, financial covenants associated with then-existing loans and our ability to access alternative forms of capital in the then-current market environment to offset the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following this analysis, we believe that we satisfied all eligibility criteria for the PPP Loans and that our receipt of the PPP Loans was consistent with the broad objectives of the CARES Act. The certification described above did not contain any objective criteria and is subject to interpretation.
In accordance with the requirements of the PPP, we used the PPP Loan to cover certain qualified expenses, including payroll costs, rent and utility costs. We repaid the principal and accrued interest on the PPP Loan in connection with the closing of the Merger on July 30, 2021.
The lack of clarity regarding loan eligibility under the PPP has resulted in significant media coverage and controversy with respect to companies applying for and receiving loans. If, despite our good-faith belief that given our circumstances we satisfied all eligible requirements for the PPP Loan, we are later determined to have violated any applicable laws or regulations that may apply to us in connection with the PPP Loan or it is otherwise determined that we were ineligible to receive the PPP Loan, we may be subject to penalties, which could also result in adverse publicity and damage to our reputation. While the SBA recently reviewed our PPP Loan and requested documentation without incident, the SBA could still conduct further reviews and request additional documentation. While we believe we can demonstrate that we satisfied all eligibility criteria and used all proceeds for permissible expenses, there is no guarantee that the SBA will agree, and any adverse findings or prolonged audit proceedings could, in addition to fines or penalties, result in the diversion of management’s time and attention and legal and reputational costs. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Risks Related to Our Financial Reporting and Disclosure
Because we recognize revenue upon the start of a booked service and not at booking, upticks or downturns in bookings are not immediately reflected in our operating results.
We experience a difference in timing between when a booking is made and when we recognize revenue, which occurs when the service is provided. The effect of significant downturns in bookings or increases in cancellations for upcoming booking dates in a particular quarter may not be fully reflected in our operating results until future periods because of this timing in revenue recognition, but would reduce our deferred revenue for the relevant period.
We track certain operational metrics with internal systems and tools and do not independently verify such metrics. Certain of our operational metrics are subject to inherent challenges in measurement and any real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may adversely affect our business and reputation.
We track certain operational metrics, including our key business metrics such as the number of bookings, GBV, and pet parent cohort behavior, with internal systems and tools that are not independently verified by any third party and which may differ from estimates or similar metrics published by third parties due to differences in sources, methodologies, or the assumptions on which we rely. Our internal systems and tools have a number of limitations and our methodologies for tracking these metrics may change over time, which could result in unexpected changes to our metrics, including the metrics we publicly disclose. If
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the internal systems and tools we use to track these metrics undercount or overcount performance or contain algorithmic or other technical errors, the data we report may not be accurate.
While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates of our metrics for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring how our platform is used across large populations. For example, the accuracy of our operating metrics could be impacted by fraudulent users of our platform, and further, we believe that there are consumers who have multiple accounts, even though this is prohibited in our Terms of Service and we implement measures to detect and prevent this behavior. In addition, limitations or errors with respect to how we measure data or with respect to the data that we measure may affect our understanding of certain details of our business, which could affect our long-term strategies. If our operating metrics are not accurate representations of our business, if investors do not perceive our operating metrics to be accurate, or if we discover material inaccuracies with respect to these figures, we expect that our business, reputation, financial condition and operating results would be materially adversely affected.
Our management has limited experience in operating a public company.
Our executive officers and directors have limited experience in the management of a publicly traded company. For example, our former chief financial officer, Tracy Knox, who was our only executive officer with extensive public company operating experience, resigned from that position effective September 1, 2022. Our management team may not successfully or effectively manage being a public company, and we are subject to significant regulatory oversight and reporting obligations under federal securities laws. Our executive officers’ limited experience in dealing with the increasingly complex laws pertaining to public companies could be a significant disadvantage in that it is likely that an increasing amount of their time may be devoted to these activities which will result in less time being devoted to our management and growth. We have hired, and it is likely we will hire in the future, additional employees to support our operations as a public company, which will increase our operating costs in future periods.
Activist stockholders may attempt to effect changes at our company, acquire control over our company or seek a sale of our company, which could impact the pursuit of business strategies and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.
Our stockholders may from time to time engage in proxy solicitations, advance stockholder proposals or otherwise attempt to affect changes or acquire control over our company. Campaigns by stockholders to effect changes at public companies are sometimes led by investors seeking to increase short-term stockholder value through actions such as financial restructuring, increased debt, special dividends, stock repurchases or sales of the entire company. For example, in 2022 an activist investor acquired a stake in a company that, like us, went public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, and recommended that it consider strategic alternatives, including a sale, citing, among other reasons, its recent stock price underperformance and the market’s largely unfavorable view of companies taken public via a SPAC. We could face a similar campaign if the unfavorable view of SPACs continues or if our stock price does not improve. Responding to proxy contests, which may increase as a result of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s universal proxy rules, and other actions by activist stockholders can lead to changes in governance and reporting, be extremely costly and time-consuming, divert the attention of our board of directors, or the Board, and senior management from the management of our operations and the pursuit of our business strategies, and impact the manner in which we operate our business in ways in which we cannot currently anticipate. As a result, stockholder campaigns could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.
We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting and may identify additional material weaknesses in the future or fail to maintain effective internal control over our financial reporting, which may result in material misstatements of our consolidated financial statements or cause us to fail to meet our periodic reporting obligations.
We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting as described below. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. We did not design or maintain an effective control environment due to an insufficient complement of personnel with the appropriate level of knowledge, experience, and training commensurate with our accounting and reporting requirements. This material weakness contributed to the following additional material weaknesses:
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•We did not design and maintain sufficient formal procedures and controls to achieve complete and accurate financial reporting and disclosures, including controls over the preparation and review of journal entries and account reconciliations. Additionally, we did not design and maintain controls to ensure appropriate segregation of duties.
•We did not design and maintain effective controls related to the identification of and accounting for certain non-routine, unusual or complex transactions, including the proper application of U.S. GAAP of such transactions. Specifically, we did not design and maintain controls to timely identify and account for warrant instruments that are derivative financial instruments.
The material weakness related to accounting for warrant instruments resulted in the restatement of the previously issued financial statements of Nebula Caravel Acquisition Corp. our legal predecessor, or Caravel, related to warrant liabilities, change in fair value of warrant liabilities, additional paid-in capital, accumulated deficit and related financial statement disclosures. The other material weaknesses described above did not result in a material misstatement to the consolidated financial statements; however they did result in adjustments to several accounts and disclosures prior to the original issuance of the financial statements. Additionally, these material weaknesses could result in a misstatement of substantially all of the financial statement accounts and disclosures that would result in a material misstatement to the annual or interim consolidated financial statements that would not be prevented or detected.
•We identified an additional material weakness as a result of the material weakness in our control environment in that we did not design and maintain effective controls over information technology (“IT”) general controls for information systems that are relevant to the preparation of our financial statements. Specifically, we did not design and maintain: (1) program change management controls for financial systems to ensure that information technology program and data changes affecting financial IT applications and underlying accounting records are identified, tested, authorized and implemented appropriately; (2) user access controls to ensure appropriate segregation of duties that adequately restrict user and privileged access to financial applications, programs, and data to appropriate Company personnel; (3) computer operations controls to ensure that critical batch jobs are monitored and data backups are authorized and monitored; and (4) testing and approval controls for program development to ensure that new software development is aligned with business and IT requirements.
These IT deficiencies did not result in a material misstatement to the financial statements; however, the deficiencies, when aggregated, could impact our ability to maintain effective segregation of duties, as well as the effectiveness of IT-dependent controls (such as automated controls that address the risk of material misstatement to one or more assertions, along with the IT controls and underlying data that support the effectiveness of system-generated data and reports) that could result in misstatements potentially impacting all financial statement accounts and disclosures that would result in a material misstatement to the annual or interim financial statements that would not be prevented or detected. Accordingly, we have determined these deficiencies in the aggregate constitute a material weakness.
We have begun implementation of a plan to remediate these material weaknesses. These remediation measures are ongoing and include hiring additional personnel, implementing additional procedures and controls, and engaging an external advisor. See Part II, Item 9A “Controls and Procedures—Material Weaknesses and Remediation Measures Taken” of this report for a discussion of these remediation measures. We can give no assurance that the measures we have taken and plan to take in the future will remediate the material weaknesses identified or that any additional material weaknesses or restatements of financial results will not arise in the future due to a failure to implement and maintain adequate internal control over financial reporting or circumvention of these controls. Likewise, if our financial statements are not filed on a timely basis, we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the stock exchange on which our Class A Common Stock is listed, the SEC, or other regulatory authorities. Failure to timely file will cause us to be ineligible to utilize short-form registration statements on Form S-3, which may impair our ability to obtain capital in a timely fashion to execute our business strategies and issue shares to effect a business combination. In either case, there could be a material adverse effect on our business. The existence of material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting could adversely affect our reputation or investor perceptions of us, which could have a negative effect on the trading price of our Class A Common Stock. In addition, we will incur additional costs to remediate material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting.
Our management’s first annual assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting is included in this report. See Part II, Item 9A “Controls and Procedures—Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting.”
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Starting with our first quarter 2023 quarterly report on Form 10-Q, we will be required to disclose changes made in our internal control over financial reporting on a quarterly basis. Our independent registered public accounting firm will first be required to audit the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting for our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the first year we are no longer an “emerging growth company” or eligible for other relief. Failure to comply with the rules and regulations of the SEC could potentially subject us to sanctions or investigations by the SEC, the applicable stock exchange or other regulatory authorities, which would require additional financial and management resources.
We may face litigation and other risks as a result of the material weakness in the internal control over financial reporting of Caravel.
Following the issuance of the SEC’s “Staff Statement on Accounting and Reporting Considerations for Warrants issued by Special Purpose Acquisition Companies,” after consultation with Caravel’s independent registered public accounting firm, Caravel’s management and audit committee concluded that it was appropriate to restate its previously issued audited financial statements as of December 31, 2020. As part of the restatement, Caravel identified a material weakness in its internal controls over financial reporting.
As a result of such material weakness, the restatement, the change in accounting for the warrants, and other matters raised or that may in the future be raised by the SEC, we may face potential litigation or other disputes which may include, among others, claims invoking the federal and state securities laws, contractual claims or other claims arising from the restatement and material weaknesses in Caravel’s and Legacy Rover’s internal control over financial reporting and the preparation of Caravel’s and Legacy Rover’s financial statements. We can provide no assurance that such litigation or dispute will not arise in the future. Any such litigation or dispute, whether successful or not, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Risks Related to Ownership of Class A Common Stock
The market price of our Class A Common Stock has been, and may continue to be, volatile and may decline.
The trading price of our Class A Common Stock has been and may continue to be volatile and subject to wide fluctuations in response to the risk factors described in this report and other factors beyond our control as listed below. Any of such factors could have a material adverse effect on an investment in our Class A Common Stock, and our Class A Common Stock may trade at prices significantly below the price an investor paid for them. In such circumstances, the trading price of our Class A Common Stock may not recover and may experience a further decline. For example, between August 2, 2021 and March 3, 2023, our Class A Common Stock’s trading price on Nasdaq has ranged from a low of $3.14 to a high of $15.59. Some companies that have experienced volatility in the trading price of their stock have been the subject of securities litigation.
Factors affecting the trading price of our Class A Common Stock may include:
•the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other non-COVID illnesses on our business;
•general macroeconomic conditions, including sustained levels of increased inflation, rising interest rates, any failure to lift the U.S. debt ceiling, lower consumer confidence, depressed consumer spending, volatile equity capital markets, changes in monetary and fiscal policy and economic uncertainty and recessions, and geopolitical events such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its impact on fuel and commodity costs and travel demand;
•actual or anticipated changes or fluctuations in our operating results or financial guidance, changes in the market’s expectations about our operating results, or failure to meet the expectation of securities analysts or investors in a particular period;
•any unfavorable view by the market of companies taken public via a SPAC;
•announcements by us or our competitors of new technology, features or services;
•our competitors’ performance;
•developments or disputes concerning our intellectual property or other proprietary rights;
•actual or perceived data security breaches or other data security incidents;
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•announced or completed acquisitions of businesses by us or our competitors;
•actual or anticipated fluctuations in our quarterly financial results or the quarterly financial results of companies perceived to be similar to us;
•any actual or anticipated changes in the financial projections we may provide to the public or our failure to meet those projections;
•stock repurchase programs undertaken by us;
•any major change in our board of directors or management;
•changes in laws and regulations affecting our business, actual or anticipated developments in our business, our competitors’ businesses or the competitive landscape generally and any related market speculation;
•litigation and any related adverse outcomes or settlements involving us, our industry or both;
•governmental or regulatory actions or audits;
•regulatory or legal developments in the United States and other countries;
•stockholder activism;
•announcement or expectation of additional financing efforts;
•changes in accounting standards, policies, guidelines, interpretations or principles;
•our ability to meet compliance requirements;
•the public’s reaction to our press releases, other public announcements, and filings with the SEC;
•operating and share price performance of other companies that investors deem comparable to us;
•price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market from time to time;
•changes in operating performance and stock market trading volumes and trading prices of other technology or growth companies generally, or those in the pet care industry in particular;
•failure of securities analysts to maintain coverage of us, or changes in financial estimates and recommendations by securities analysts concerning us or the pet care industry in general;
•changes in our capital structure, such as future issuances of securities, including the last tranche of 2,192,687 shares of Class A Common Stock that may be issued to former Legacy Rover stockholders upon the Class A Common Stock achieving certain share price milestones pursuant to our Business Combination Agreement with Caravel, or Earnout Shares, or the incurrence of debt;
•the volume of shares of Class A Common Stock available for public sale or being sold, including shares sold to satisfy tax withholding obligations and the aggregate exercise price for the exercise of stock options, shares sold pursuant to Rule 10b5-1 plans that have been adopted by our executive officers and employees, and any shares sold if we reimplement a “sell-to-cover” program to satisfy tax withholding obligations for grants of RSUs;
•sales or other distributions of shares of Class A Common Stock by us or our stockholders;
•sales or other distributions of substantial amounts of shares of Class A Common Stock by our directors, executive officers or significant stockholders or the perception that such sales or other distributions could occur; and
Broad market and industry factors may materially harm the market price of our securities irrespective of our operating performance. The stock markets in general have experienced price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of the particular companies affected. The trading prices and valuations of these stocks and of our securities may not be predictable. A loss of investor confidence in the market for retail, technology or growth
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stocks or the stocks of other companies which investors perceive to be similar to us could depress our share price regardless of our business, prospects, financial conditions or results of operations. Volatility in the equity capital markets or a decline in the market price of our securities also could adversely affect our ability to issue additional equity securities, our ability to obtain additional financing in the future to fund business operations or future growth plans, and the retentive power of our equity compensation plans, which we rely upon in part to retain key executives and employees.
Further and sustained declines in the market price of our Class A Common Stock could result in notice that we are not in compliance with the per share minimum price requirements for continued listing on Nasdaq. If this occurred and we were unable to cure this violation, we could be delisted, which would have a further material adverse effect on market prices of our Class A Common Stock and stockholder liquidity.
Insiders currently have and may continue to possess substantial influence over us, which could limit investors’ ability to affect the outcome of key transactions, including a change of control.
As of March 3, 2023, our executive officers, directors and their affiliates as a group beneficially owned approximately 36% of the Class A Common Stock representing approximately 34% of the vote (the calculation of such amounts excludes the last tranche of 2,192,687 Earnout Shares, unvested RSUs and options to purchase Class A Common Stock that remain issued and outstanding, and equity awards that may be issued under our employee benefit plans, including the 2021 Equity Incentive Plan, or the 2021 Plan, and the 2021 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, or the 2021 ESPP).
As a result, these stockholders, if they act together, may be able to influence our management and affairs and all matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors, amendments of our organizational documents, and approval of significant corporate transactions. They may also have interests that differ from other stockholders and may vote in a way with which other stockholders disagree and which may be adverse to their interests. This concentration of ownership may have the effect of delaying, preventing or deterring a change in control and might affect the market price of our Class A Common Stock.
In addition, Nebula Caravel Holdings, LLC holds the right to designate a director to our Board. This control could have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control or changes in our management and could make the approval of certain transactions difficult or impossible without the support of insider stockholders and their votes.
If we are unsuccessful in our Delaware General Corporation Law Section 205 proceeding, the uncertainty with respect to our capital structure could have a material adverse effect on us until the underlying issues are definitively resolved.
On July 28, 2021, Caravel held a special meeting of stockholders, or Special Meeting, to approve certain matters relating to the business combination between Caravel and Legacy Rover, including a proposal, or the Governing Documents Proposal, to amend Caravel’s then-effective Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation dated December 8, 2020.
The Governing Documents Proposal was approved by the affirmative vote of (1) the holders of a majority of the outstanding shares of Class B common stock, voting separately as a single class, and (2) the holders of a majority of the outstanding shares of Class A Common Stock and Class B common stock voting together as a single class. Although Caravel did not seek approval from the holders of Class A Common Stock, voting separately as a single class, a majority of the outstanding shares of Class A Common Stock were voted in favor of the Governing Documents Proposal. Since the Closing, we have been proceeding with the understanding that the Governing Documents Proposal is valid, including by issuing securities in reliance thereon.
We continue to believe that the lack of disclosure of the affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of the outstanding shares of Class A Common Stock, voting separately as a single class, should not affect the validity of the approval of the Governing Documents Proposal. However, to resolve any uncertainty with respect to our capital structure introduced by a recent ruling by the Delaware Court of Chancery, or Court of Chancery, and consistent with the approach taken by certain other similarly situated companies, on February 27, 2023, we filed a petition in the Court of Chancery under Section 205 of the DGCL to seek validation of the filing and effectiveness of our Restated Charter, including the amendments approved by the Governing Documents Proposal, and the shares issued in reliance on the Restated Charter. Section 205 of the DGCL permits the Court of Chancery, in its discretion, to ratify and validate potentially defective corporate acts. Concurrently with such petition, we filed a motion to expedite the hearing on the petition. On March 1, 2023, the Court of Chancery granted the motion to expedite and scheduled a final hearing to consider the merits of the Petition for March 14, 2023.
If we are unsuccessful in our Section 205 proceeding, the uncertainty with respect to our capital structure resulting from the Court of Chancery’s ruling referenced above could have a material adverse effect on us until the underlying issues are definitively resolved, including potential legal claims by stockholders and on: (1) our ability to complete equity financing
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transactions or acquisitions or issue stock-based compensation; (2) the value of our Class A Common Stock; (3) our listing on the Nasdaq Global Market; and (4) our ability to timely make SEC filings. This uncertainty could impair our ability to raise additional capital, execute our business plan, attract and retain employees, management and directors, and adversely affect our commercial relationships.
Because there are no current plans to pay cash dividends on our Class A Common Stock for the foreseeable future, investors may not receive any return on investment unless they sell their Class A Common Stock at a price greater than what they paid for it.
We intend to retain future earnings, if any, for future operations and expansion and any future debt repayment. There are no current plans to pay any cash dividends for the foreseeable future. The declaration, amount and payment of any future dividends on shares of our Class A Common Stock will be at the sole discretion of the Board. The Board may take into account general and economic conditions, our financial condition and results of operations, our available cash and current and anticipated cash needs, capital requirements, contractual, legal, tax and regulatory restrictions, implications of the payment of dividends to our stockholders or by our subsidiaries to us and such other factors as the Board may deem relevant. As a result, investors may not receive any return on an investment in our Class A Common Stock unless they sell their Class A Common Stock for a price greater than that which they paid for it.
Our stockholders may experience significant dilution in the future.
The percentage of shares of our Class A Common Stock owned by current stockholders will be diluted in the future because of equity issuances for acquisitions, capital market transactions or otherwise, including, without limitation, equity awards granted to our directors, officers and employees or meeting the conditions under the last tranche of 2,192,687 Earnout Shares. These issuances may have a significant dilutive effect on our earnings per share, which could adversely affect the market price of our Class A Common Stock. For example, because the volume weighted average price of our Class A Common Stock over the 20 trading days preceding and inclusive of September 29, 2021 exceeded $12.00 and $14.00, the first two tranches of Earnout Shares were triggered, and we issued an aggregate of 17,540,964 Earnout Shares to eligible former Legacy Rover stockholders in October 2021. Further, in connection with the redemption of all of our outstanding warrants, we issued 2,046,220 shares of Class A Common Stock in January 2022 related to the cashless exercise of certain of those warrants during December 2021 and January 2022.
We currently utilize “sell-to-cover” transactions to satisfy tax withholding obligations and the aggregate exercise price for the exercise of stock options. We have previously utilized, and may utilize again in the future, “sell-to-cover” transactions to satisfy tax withholding obligations for the vesting of RSUs. Under “sell-to-cover,” shares with a market value equivalent to the tax withholding obligation and aggregate exercise price will be sold on behalf of the individual exercising vested options to cover the tax withholding liability and aggregate exercise price, and the cash proceeds related to tax withholding obligations from these sales will be remitted by us to the taxing authorities. These sales will not result in the expenditure of additional cash by us to satisfy the tax withholding obligations for options, but will cause dilution to our stockholders and, to the extent a large number of shares are sold in connection with any exercise event, such sales volume may cause our stock price to fluctuate.
We cannot guarantee that our share repurchase program will be utilized to the full value approved or that it will enhance long-term stockholder value.
In February 2023, our Board approved a share repurchase program authorizing the purchase of up to $50 million of Class A Common Stock. The repurchase program does not obligate us to acquire any specific number of shares of Class A Common Stock. The timing, volume and nature of repurchases will be determined by our management and depend on a variety of factors, including stock price, trading volume, market and economic conditions, other general business considerations such as alternative investment opportunities, applicable legal requirements and tax laws, and other relevant factors, all of which may be further impacted by macroeconomic conditions and factors, including rising interest rates and inflation, global conflicts, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Repurchases under the program have been authorized for the next 12 months, but the program may be modified, suspended, or terminated at any time at the discretion of the Board, which may result in a decrease in our stock price. Additionally, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 introduced a 1% excise tax on share repurchases, which increases the costs associated with repurchasing shares of our Class A Common Stock.
The existence of a share repurchase program could cause our stock price to trade higher than it otherwise would be and could potentially reduce the market liquidity for our stock. Any failure to repurchase the entire $50 million authorized under our share repurchase program may negatively impact our reputation, investor confidence in us, and our stock price. Even if our share repurchase program is fully implemented, it may not enhance long-term stockholder value or may not prove to be the best use
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of our cash. Although share repurchase programs are intended to enhance long-term stockholder value, there is no assurance ours will do so because our stock price may decline below the levels at which we repurchased shares and short-term stock price fluctuations could reduce the effectiveness of our program. Share repurchases could have an impact on our stock price, increase the volatility of our stock price, or reduce our available cash balance such that we may be required to seek financing to fund capital expenditures and strategic acquisitions or business opportunities.
Delaware or Washington law and provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws might delay, discourage or prevent a change in control or changes in our management, thereby depressing the market price of our Class A Common Stock.
Our status as a Delaware corporation and the anti-takeover provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law, or DGCL, may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control by prohibiting us from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person became an interested stockholder, even if a change of control would be beneficial to our existing stockholders. In addition, our certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain provisions that may make an acquisition of our company more difficult or delay or prevent changes in control of our management. Among other things, these provisions:
•authorize the Board to issues shares of preferred stock and determine the price and other terms of those shares, including preferences and voting rights, without stockholder approval;
•permit only the Board to establish the number of directors and fill vacancies on the Board;
•establish that our Board is divided into three classes, with each class serving staggered three-year terms;
•provide that our directors may be removed only for cause;
•permit stockholders to take actions only at a duly called annual or special meeting and not by written consent;
•require that stockholders give advance notice to nominate directors or submit proposals for consideration at stockholder meetings;
•prohibit stockholders from calling a special meeting of stockholders; and
•require a super-majority vote of stockholders to amend some of the provisions described above.
In addition, because our principal executive offices are located in Washington, the anti-takeover provisions of the Washington Business Corporation Act may apply to us under certain circumstances now or in the future. These provisions prohibit a “target corporation” from engaging in any of a broad range of business combinations with any stockholder constituting an “acquiring person” for a period of five years following the date on which the stockholder became an “acquiring person.”
These provisions, alone or together, could delay, discourage or prevent a transaction involving a change in control. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for stockholders to elect directors of their choosing and to cause us to take other corporate actions they desire, any of which, under certain circumstances, could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our Class A Common Stock and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our Class A Common Stock.
Our bylaws designate a state or federal court located within the State of Delaware as the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders and also provide that the federal district courts are the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act, each of which limits our stockholders’ ability to choose the judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, stockholders or employees.
Our bylaws provide that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the sole and exclusive forum for: (1) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; (2) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, stockholders, officers or other employees to us or our stockholders; (3) any action arising pursuant to any provision of the DGCL, our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws; or (4) any other action asserting a claim that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine shall be the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or, if the Court of Chancery does not have jurisdiction, another State court in Delaware or the federal district court for the District of Delaware), except for any claim as to which such court determines that there is an indispensable party not subject to the jurisdiction of such court (and the indispensable party does not consent to the personal jurisdiction of such court within ten days following such
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determination), which is vested in the exclusive jurisdiction of a court or forum other than such court or for which such court does not have subject matter jurisdiction. This provision does not apply to any action brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or its rules and regulations.
Section 22 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, establishes concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over Securities Act claims. Accordingly, both state and federal courts have jurisdiction to hear such claims. To prevent having to litigate claims in multiple jurisdictions and the threat of inconsistent or contrary rulings by different courts, among other considerations, our bylaws also provide that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the federal district courts of the United States will be the sole and exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act against any person in connection with any offering of our securities, including, without limitation and for the avoidance of doubt, any auditor, underwriter, expert, control person or other defendant.
Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring or holding or owning (or continuing to hold or own) any interest in any of our securities is deemed to have notice of and consented to the foregoing bylaw provisions. Although we believe these exclusive forum provisions benefit us by providing increased consistency in the application of Delaware law and federal securities laws in the types of lawsuits to which each applies, the exclusive forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum of such stockholder’s choosing for disputes with us or our current or former directors, officers, stockholders or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our current and former directors, officers, stockholders and other employees. In addition, a stockholder that is unable to bring a claim in the judicial forum of such stockholder’s choosing may be required to incur additional costs in the pursuit of actions which are subject to the exclusive forum provisions described above. Our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder as a result of our exclusive forum provisions.
Further, the enforceability of similar exclusive forum provisions in other companies’ organizational documents has been challenged in legal proceedings and it is possible that a court of law could rule that these types of provisions are inapplicable or unenforceable if they are challenged in a proceeding or otherwise. If a court were to find either exclusive forum provision contained in our bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur significant additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, all of which could harm our results of operations.
General Risk Factors
If we fail to maintain an effective system of disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations could be impaired, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and, as a result, the market price of our Class A Common Stock.
As a public company, we are required to comply with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, including, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. We are continuing to develop and refine our disclosure controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we will file with the SEC is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms and that information required to be disclosed in reports under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our principal executive and financial officers.
We must continue to improve our internal control over financial reporting. We are making our first formal assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting for the year ended December 31, 2022 in this report, and once we cease to be an emerging growth company or eligible for other relief, we will be required to include an attestation report on internal control over financial reporting issued by our independent registered public accounting firm. To achieve compliance with these requirements within the prescribed time period, we have engaged in a process to document and evaluate our internal control over financial reporting, which is both costly and challenging. In this regard, we have and will need to continue to dedicate internal resources, engage outside consultants and adopt a detailed work plan to assess and document the adequacy of our internal control over financial reporting, validate through testing that controls are functioning as documented, and implement a continuous reporting and improvement process for internal control over financial reporting. There is a risk that we will not be able to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. For example, we have determined that our internal control over financial reporting is not effective as of December 31, 2022 due to the existence of material weaknesses as described in Part II, Item 9A of this report, and due to these material weaknesses we also determined that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective. Moreover, our testing,
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or the subsequent testing by our independent registered public accounting firm, may reveal additional deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses.
Any failure to implement and maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting, including the identification of one or more material weaknesses, could cause investors to lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial statements and reports, which would likely adversely affect the market price of our Class A Common Stock. In addition, we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by Nasdaq, the SEC and other regulatory authorities.
The value of our marketable securities could decline, which could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.
Our marketable securities portfolio includes various holdings, types, and maturities. Market values of these investments can be adversely impacted by various factors, including liquidity in the underlying security, credit deterioration, the financial condition of the credit issuer, foreign exchange rates, and changes in interest rates. Our marketable securities, which we consider highly-liquid investments, are classified as available-for-sale and are recorded on our consolidated balance sheets at their estimated fair value. Unrealized gains and losses on available-for-sale debt securities are reported as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) in stockholders’ equity (deficit). Realized gains and losses and credit loss reserves are reported within other income (expense), net in the consolidated statements of operations. If the fair value of our marketable equity securities declines, our earnings will be reduced or losses will be increased. Furthermore, our interest income from cash, cash equivalents, and our marketable securities are impacted by changes in interest rates, and a decline in interest rates would adversely impact our interest income.
Growing focus on evolving environmental, social, and governance issues (ESG) by stockholders, customers, regulators and other stakeholders may impose additional risks and costs on our business.
Environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, matters have become an area of growing and evolving focus among public company stockholders and other stakeholders, including among customers, employees, regulators and the general public in the United States and abroad. In particular, companies face heightened expectations with respect to their practices, disclosures and performance in relation to climate change, diversity, equity and inclusion, human capital management, cybersecurity, data privacy and security, supply chains (including human rights issues), among other topics.
If we fail to meet evolving investor and stakeholder expectations on ESG matters or if we are perceived not to have responded appropriately or in a timely manner to ESG issues that are material to our business, including failing to satisfy reporting and disclosure expectations, we may experience harm to our brand and reputation, adverse press coverage, a reduction in our attractiveness as an investment, greater regulatory scrutiny and potential legal claims, greater difficulties in attracting and retaining customers and talent, and as a consequence, our business, results of operations, financial condition and/or stock price could be materially adversely affected. We also expect to incur additional costs and require additional resources to monitor, report, and comply with various ESG initiatives, including the proposed SEC rules on cybersecurity and climate change.
Certain estimates and information contained in this report and other filings with the SEC are based on information from third-party sources and we do not independently verify the accuracy or completeness of the data contained in such sources or the methodologies for collecting such data and any real or perceived inaccuracies in such estimates and information may harm our reputation and adversely affect our business.
Certain estimates and information contained in this report and other filings with the SEC, including general expectations concerning our industry and the market in which we operate, category share, market opportunity and market size, are based to some extent on information provided by third-party providers. This information involves a number of assumptions and limitations and although we believe the information from such third-party sources is reliable, we have not independently verified the accuracy or completeness of the data contained in such third-party sources or the methodologies for collecting such data. If there are any limitations or errors with respect to such data or methodologies, or if investors do not perceive such data or methodologies to be accurate, or if we discover material inaccuracies with respect to such data or methodologies, our reputation, financial condition and operating results could be materially adversely affected.
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We are incurring significant increased expenses and administrative burdens as a public company, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Since 2021, we have incurred increased legal, accounting, administrative and other costs and expenses as a public company that Legacy Rover did not incur as a private company, and these expenses may increase even more after we are no longer an “emerging growth company.” The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, including the requirements of Section 404, and the rules and regulations subsequently implemented by the SEC, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and the Nasdaq listing standards impose additional reporting and other obligations on public companies. Compliance with these requirements will increase costs, make certain activities more time-consuming, and require us to divert a significant amount of money that could otherwise be used to expand the business and achieve strategic objectives. If any issues in complying with these new requirements are identified (for example, if our management or independent registered public accounting firm identifies additional material weaknesses in the internal control over financial reporting), we could incur additional costs rectifying those issues, the existence of those issues could adversely affect our reputation or investor perceptions of us, and it may be more expensive to obtain director and officer liability insurance.
Risks associated with our status as a public company may make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our Board or as executive officers. Our public company status has made it more difficult and more expensive to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we have incurred considerable costs to maintain the level of coverage that we believe is appropriate for a public company. In addition, such insurance provides for a substantial retention of liability, is subject to limitations and may not cover a significant portion, or any, of the expenses we may now incur or be subject to in connection with any stockholder class action or other litigation to which we are named as a party.
As a result of filings required of a public company, our business and financial condition has become more visible, which may result in threatened or actual litigation, including by competitors and other third parties. If such claims are successful, our business and results of operations could be materially adversely affected and even if the claims do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor, these claims and the time and resources necessary to resolve them could divert the resources of our management and adversely affect our business and results of operations.
We are an emerging growth company and any decision to comply only with certain reduced reporting and disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies could make our Class A Common Stock less attractive to investors and may make it more difficult to compare our performance with other public companies.
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act. For as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may choose to continue to take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies but not to “emerging growth companies,” including:
•not being required to have an independent registered public accounting firm audit our internal control over financial reporting under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act;
•reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and annual report on Form 10-K; and
•exemptions from the requirements of holding non-binding advisory votes on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.
As a result, stockholders may not have access to certain information that they may deem important. Our status as an emerging growth company will end as soon as any of the following takes place:
•the last day of the fiscal year in which we have at least $1.235 billion in annual revenue;
•the date we qualify as a “large accelerated filer,” with at least $700.0 million of equity securities held by non-affiliates;
•the date on which we have issued, in any three-year period, more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities; or
•the last day of the fiscal year ending after the fifth anniversary of the Caravel IPO, which is December 31, 2025.
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Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can also delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have elected not to take advantage of this extended transition period.
We cannot predict if investors will find our Class A Common Stock less attractive if we choose to continue to rely on any of the exemptions afforded emerging growth companies. If some investors find our Class A Common Stock less attractive because we continue to rely on any of these exemptions, there may be a less active trading market for the Class A Common Stock and the market price of the Class A Common Stock may be more volatile and may decline.
If securities or industry analysts either do not publish research about us or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about us, our business or our industry, or if they adversely change their recommendations regarding our Class A Common Stock, the trading price and/or the trading volume of our Class A Common Stock could decline.
The trading market for our Class A Common Stock is influenced in part by the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us, our business, our market and our competitors. Overly enthusiastic opinions or estimates regarding our business or future stock price can result in volatility if performance does not meet such estimates. In addition, if one or more securities analysts initiate research with an unfavorable rating or downgrade our Class A Common Stock, provide a more favorable recommendation about our competitors or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our Class A Common Stock price will likely decline. If few securities analysts commence coverage of us, or if one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the financial markets and demand for our securities could decrease, which in turn could cause the price and trading volume of our Class A Common Stock to decline.
Future sales of Class A Common Stock in the public market could cause our share price to decline significantly, even if our business is doing well.
The market price of our Class A Common Stock could decline as a result of sales of a large number of shares of Class A Common Stock in the market or the perception that these sales could occur. There are a total of 185,045,456 shares of Class A Common Stock outstanding as of March 3, 2023 (excluding the last tranche of 2,192,687 Earnout Shares that may be issued, unvested RSUs and options to purchase Class A Common Stock outstanding under our employee benefit plans, and any equity awards that may be issued under the 2021 ESPP and the 2021 Plan).
Certain holders of shares of our Class A Common Stock have rights, subject to some conditions, to require us to file registration statements for the public resale of their Class A Common Stock or to include such shares in registration statements that we may file for us or other stockholders. We have filed a registration statement on Form S-3 to register the resale of shares of our Class A Common Stock by certain of these holders. Any registration statement we file to register additional shares, whether as a result of registration rights or otherwise, could cause the market price of our Class A Common Stock to decline or be volatile. These holders and our affiliates may also use Rule 144 to sell their shares of our Class A Common Stock.
We have filed registration statements on Form S-8 under the Securities Act to register shares of Class A Common Stock reserved for future issuance under our equity compensation plans. The Form S-8 registration statements became effective automatically upon filing, and shares covered by the registration statements became eligible for sale in the public market, subject to Rule 144 limitations applicable to affiliates. Subject to the satisfaction of applicable vesting restrictions, the shares issuable upon exercise of outstanding stock options, vesting of RSUs and other awards will be available for immediate resale in the public market. Sales of Class A Common Stock pursuant to the exercise of registration rights may make it more difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future at a time and at a price that we deem appropriate. These sales also could cause the trading price of our Class A Common Stock to fall and make it more difficult for investors to sell shares of our Class A Common Stock at a time and price that they deem appropriate.
Sales, short sales, or hedging transactions involving our equity securities could adversely affect the price of our Class A Common Stock.
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments.
None.
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Item 2. Properties.
Our corporate headquarters are located in Seattle, Washington and consists of approximately 91,000 square feet under an operating lease that expires in 2030. We sublease approximately 31,000 square feet of our corporate headquarters. We lease additional offices in Spokane, Washington, San Antonio, Texas, and Barcelona, Spain. We use our corporate headquarters and our other offices primarily for our management, engineering, marketing, operations and support, accounting, finance, legal, human resources, general and administrative, and information technology teams.
We believe that these facilities are generally suitable to meet our current needs and that, should it be needed, suitable additional or alternative space will be available to accommodate our operations. In the second half of 2022, we adopted a policy empowering department heads to determine the in-office and remote work requirements for their teams. While we will maintain office space for employees to work, learn and collaborate, we may exit lease agreements or enter into subleases and, therefore, incur lease impairments and increased costs for travel and software tools. Any impairments or increased costs may be material. For more information about our lease commitments, see Note 11—Commitments and Contingencies under the subsection titled “Leases” in our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Part II, Item 8 of this report.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings.
For information regarding legal proceedings in which we are involved, see Note 11—Commitments and Contingencies under the subsection titled “Litigation and Other” in our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Part II, Item 8 of this report.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.
Not applicable.
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PART II
Item 5. Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.
Market Information
Our Class A Common Stock has traded on The Nasdaq Global Market under the trading symbol “ROVR” since August 2, 2021. Prior to August 2, 2021 and before the completion of the business combination with Nebula Caravel Acquisition Corp., the Class A common stock of Nebula Caravel Acquisition Corp. traded on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “NEBC” and there was no public trading market for Legacy Rover’s equity.
Holders
As of March 3, 2023, there were 105 stockholders of record of our Class A Common Stock. The actual number of stockholders is greater than this number of record holders and includes stockholders who are beneficial owners but whose shares are held in street name by brokers and other nominees.
Dividend Policy
We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our Class A Common Stock and have no current plans to declare or pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any future decision to declare and pay dividends will be made at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on, among other things, our results of operations, financial condition, cash requirements, contractual restrictions, business prospects and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant. We may enter into credit agreements or other borrowing arrangements in the future that may restrict our ability to declare or pay cash dividends or make distributions.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities
None.
Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers
None.
Item 6. [Reserved].
Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with our audited consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2022 and 2021 and for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2022 and the related notes included in Part II, Item 8 of this report. This section of this Form 10-K generally discusses fiscal years 2022 and 2021 and year-to-year comparisons between 2022 and 2021. Discussions of fiscal year 2020 and year-to-year comparisons between 2021 and 2020 that are not included in this Form 10-K, including for key business metrics and non-GAAP financial measures, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our results during fiscal years 2020 and 2021, can be found in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Part II, Item 7 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 filed on March 21, 2022.
Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this report, including information with respect to our plans, estimates and strategy for our business and our expectations regarding future revenue and expense trends and liquidity, includes forward-looking statements based upon current expectations that involve risks and uncertainties. You should read the sections titled “Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” for a discussion of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results described in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in the following discussion and analysis. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for any period in the future.
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Unless the context requires otherwise, references to “Rover,” “the Company,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Rover Group, Inc., a Delaware corporation, together with its consolidated subsidiaries.
Overview
We believe in the unconditional love of pets, and Rover exists to make it possible for everyone to experience this love in their lives. Rover was founded to give pet parents a better alternative to relying on friends and family, neighbors, and kennels for pet care. It is the world’s largest online marketplace for pet care based on publicly available app reviews and user counts. Our online marketplace aims to match pet parents with pet lovers who are dedicated to providing excellent pet care while earning extra income. Our simple and easy-to-use platform enables pet parents to discover and book the right pet care providers for them and their pets, communicate with providers, and read and write reviews. Our platform enables pet care providers to manage bookings, communicate with pet parents, independently set pricing, define the terms and delivery of their services, and receive payment, all in a simple and cost-effective way.
We connect pet parents with caring pet care providers who offer overnight services, including boarding and in-home pet sitting, and daytime services, including doggy day care, dog walking, and drop-in visits. We currently operate in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Sweden, Italy, Germany, Norway, and the Netherlands. Through December 31, 2022, more than 4.1 million unique pet parents and over 870,000 pet care providers across North America, the United Kingdom and Western Europe have matched to book or provide a service on Rover, enabling millions of moments of joy and play for people and pets.
We generate substantially all of our revenue from our pet care marketplace platform that connects pet parents and pet care providers. We collect service fees from both pet parents and pet care providers. We earn more revenue as more pet parents request and pet care providers accept and complete bookings. We also earn revenue from ancillary sources such as provider onboarding, virtual pet training services, affiliate fees via our blog, and sales of products in the Rover Store.
Notwithstanding the impact of COVID-19, we are continuing to invest in the future through product development and marketing efforts. We also continue to explore and test new service lines that we may launch at a future date. Our strategy is to create a marketplace that operates at a hyper-local level while leveraging our trusted brand. Even as we invest in the business, we also remain focused on finding ways to operate more efficiently.
Key Business Metrics
In addition to the measures presented in our consolidated financial statements, we use the following key business metrics to measure our performance, identify trends, formulate financial projections, and make strategic decisions. Accordingly, we believe that these key business metrics provide useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our results of operations in the same manner as our management team.
Bookings
We define a booking as a single arrangement between a pet parent and pet care provider on the Rover platform prior to cancellations, which can be for a single night or multiple nights for overnight services, or for a single walk/day/drop-in or multiple walks/days/drop-ins for daytime services. Bookings grow as we attract new pet parents to the platform and as pet parents increase their repeat activity on the platform. We believe that the number of bookings is a useful indicator of the scale of our marketplace. We define new bookings as the total number of first-time bookings that pet parents new to Rover book on our platform during a period. We define repeat bookings as the total number of bookings from pet parents who have ever had a previous booking on Rover, inclusive of pet parents who had their first booking within the same quarter.
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New bookings for the year ended December 31, 2022 exceeded the peak from the release of pent-up demand from the prior year period, when pandemic fears eased in the United States and drove a surge of new pet parents to our platform. The improvement in new bookings for the year ended December 31, 2022 as compared to the prior year period was driven by continued recovery in travel behavior in our markets, including substantially increased demand in our international markets. This was especially the case in the United Kingdom and Canada, as pandemic-related travel restrictions and risk aversion eased relative to the prior year period. We expect the significant growth rate in new international customers during the year ended December 31, 2022 to moderate going forward, as these had benefited from pent-up travel demand dynamics that are more one-time in nature. Moreover, starting in the second quarter of 2022 and continuing through the fourth quarter, we are seeing the Google query volume for some key terms, which is correlated to demand from new pet parents, decreasing year-over-year as compared to the outsized gains of 2021, but still significantly above 2019 levels.
The improvement in repeat bookings for the year ended December 31, 2022 as compared to the prior year period was driven by the increased pet parent base relative to 2021 as new pet parents have joined the platform over the last twelve months. As these users returned to the platform for repeat bookings, we saw an overall increase in repeat bookings compared to the prior year period.
Gross Booking Value
GBV represents the dollar value of bookings on the Rover platform during a period, prior to cancellations, and is inclusive of pet care provider earnings, service fees, add-ons, taxes, and alterations, and is exclusive of tips and Rover’s other ancillary revenue streams. We believe that GBV is a useful indicator of the level of spending on and growth of our platform. Growth in GBV represents increasing activity on our platform from repeat and new pet parents, as well as increased provider-set prices, and may differ slightly from bookings growth depending on the mix of daytime and overnight services for each period. While bookings historically peak during the third quarter, GBV historically tends to peak in the fourth quarter due to higher average booking values associated with longer duration stays.
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The improvement in GBV for the year ended December 31, 2022 as compared to the prior year period was driven by the increase in bookings, as well as higher average bookings values as discussed below under “—Factors Affecting our Performance—Service Booking Mix.” In the year ended December 31, 2022, international markets were 8% of GBV compared to 5% in the prior year period. Although full year GBV growth was particularly strong in the United Kingdom and France, we expect the high GBV contribution from new international customers during the year ended December 31, 2022 to moderate going forward, as these had benefited from pent-up travel demand dynamics in the year that are more one-time in nature.
Impact of COVID-19 and Other Health Trends
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and other seasonal illnesses continue to impact communities globally, including in the markets we serve, which in turn impacts our business. Of particular importance is the pandemic’s impact on travel and the return of workers to their offices, as well as the increasing adoption of remote and hybrid working arrangements, which could result in fewer bookings and higher than average cancellation rates if the pandemic or permanent changes in working arrangements depress travel or office attendance.
Although demand improved during 2022, we believe demand levels and cancellation rates continue to be negatively affected by our users’ reactions to COVID-19 variants and increases in case counts, as well as other seasonal illnesses. See “—Factors Affecting Our Performance—Cancellation Rates.” We achieved increases in revenue, GBV and new and repeat bookings in the year ended December 31, 2022 as compared to the prior year period. However, as our performance in 2021 benefited from a spike in travel demand from the vaccine roll-outs and the surge in pandemic pet adoptions, the year-over-year growth rates involving these periods should not be considered representative of the long-term growth rate performance of our business.
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We believe that a return to pre-pandemic travel levels and in-office work would be a positive factor on our growth. However, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the resulting complications from COVID-19, and non-COVID illnesses that may result from reduced immunity caused by social distancing during the pandemic, continued to negatively affect our results in 2022, including rates of growth in new pet parent acquisition, repeat bookings, and GBV. The extent to which the pandemic will continue to impact our business, operating results and financial position will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain, difficult to predict and beyond our knowledge and control, including but not limited to the duration and spread of the pandemic, its severity, new variants and sub-variants, other health-related events, actions to contain the virus or treat its impact, the extent of the business disruption and financial impacts, and the magnitude and timing of such factors as economic and operating conditions.
We had taken action to promote the health and safety of our employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the second half of 2022, we adopted a policy empowering department heads to determine the in-office and remote work requirements for their teams. While we will maintain office space for employees to work, learn and collaborate, we may exit lease agreements or enter into subleases and, therefore, incur lease impairments and increased costs for travel and software tools. Any impairments or increased costs may be material.
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Key Trends and Uncertainties
Macroeconomic and geopolitical trends such as other health-related events, political instability, sustained levels of increased inflation (including wage inflation), rising interests rates, significant U.S. and foreign currency fluctuations, lower consumer confidence, depressed consumer spending, monetary and fiscal policy changes, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its resulting impacts on energy and commodity prices, volatility in the stock market, any failure to lift the U.S. debt ceiling, and the economic uncertainty or any recession resulting from any of the foregoing could lead to reduced travel and pet care services industry spending or an economic downturn in the markets we serve, any of which could adversely affect our future business, operating results and financial position. To date, these conditions have had a modest impact on our business, results of operations, cash flows, and financial condition, although we have seen the growth rate of pet care provider price increases slow significantly throughout 2022. However, the full impact of these macroeconomic and geopolitical events and trends on our business, results of operations, cash flows, and financial condition remains uncertain, and will depend on future developments that we may not be able to accurately predict. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry.”
We maintain that pet care providers who use the Rover platform are our customers and, as such, are at most independent contractors. However, pet care providers may be reclassified as employees, especially in light of the evolving rules and restrictions on service provider classification and their potential impact on participants in the “gig economy.” A reclassification of pet care providers as employees and claims or settlements of proceedings alleging misclassification could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Regulation and Taxation—If pet care providers are reclassified as employees under applicable law, our business would be materially adversely affected” and Note 11—Commitments and Contingencies under the subsection titled “Litigation and Other Contingencies” in our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Part I, Item 1 of this report for a discussion of a settlement agreement we entered into with respect to a classification lawsuit in California. As part of the settlement agreement, we agreed to modify the Rover platform to make certain changes applicable to pet care providers in California to bolster the classification of pet care providers who use the Rover platform as independent contractors under California law. These changes could adversely impact our revenue and operating expenses.
See also “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk” for a discussion of our foreign currency, investment and interest rate, and inflation risks and “Factors Affecting our Performance” below.
Factors Affecting Our Performance
We believe that our performance and future success depend on several factors that present significant opportunities, but also pose risks and challenges, including those discussed below. See Part I, Item 1A of this report titled “Risk Factors.”
Growth of our Base of Pet Parents
Our objective is to attract new pet parents to our platform and to successfully convert them into repeat bookers, as new pet parent acquisition is an important driver of future revenue. We drive pet parents to our platform through word-of-mouth, as well as from a variety of paid marketing channels such as paid search, social media, video, and other online and offline channels, including distribution partnerships. For example, starting in October 2022, we entered a new distribution channel in the employer sponsored back-up care space with Bright Horizons. This partnership provides employees who have employer sponsored child care benefits the opportunity to use those benefits to book pet care services on Rover. We believe it provides a positive incentive for both new and repeat bookings, and is an example of the type of distribution partnerships we may pursue in the future.
Repeat Booking Activity
Our aim when we attract a new pet parent is to continue to generate bookings from that pet parent. As new pet parents return to the platform, we see an overall increase in repeat bookings. We define a repeat pet parent as any pet parent that has an incremental booking beyond their first. In the year ended December 31, 2022, repeat bookings increased 36% to 4.6 million from the prior year period as our business recovered. In the year ended December 31, 2022, repeat bookings as a percentage of total bookings was 83%, compared to 81% in the prior year period. While higher new pet parent acquisition during the COVID-19 pandemic drove down the ratio of repeat pet parents to new pet parents, we believe this ratio highlights the future potential of our existing pet parent base to return as the marketplace continues to scale. We believe this ratio will continue climbing towards the mid to high 80% range.
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We may see a change in the percentage of bookings from repeat pet parents over time. A change in our ability to attract pet parents to our platform or changes in pet parent behavior could have a significant negative impact on our repeat bookings, GBV, revenue, net income (loss), Adjusted EBITDA, and operating results.
Investing in Growth
We have invested, and plan to continue investing, in new markets and new service offerings. We believe that we can further expand services to new markets within our existing geographies by carefully targeting locations with high expected demand. We also believe there is an opportunity to expand services outside of our existing geographic locations into other countries and regions where the spend per pet is attractive. As we expand to new markets, we may invest more heavily in product development and marketing, with expectations of a slightly extended return on investment target period in order to accelerate growth in each new market.
Our growth strategy includes evaluating acquisitions that can accelerate our growth and operating leverage. The timing of acquisitions and related integration will impact our financial results. For example, in 2022 we acquired GoodPup, an early-stage company that operates a virtual dog training platform, and invested in an early-stage service for pet parents that is complementary to our current offerings. See Note 4—Business Combinations and Note 6—Investments to our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this report for additional information. In addition, we believe that expanding product and service offerings may help us to better provide value to pet parents, improve the ability to attract additional pet parents through additional marketing and advertising spend that increases brand awareness, and increase the engagement of existing pet parents.
Availability of Pet Care Providers
Our platform enables pet care providers to list on our marketplace with low startup costs, define the terms and delivery of their services, independently set the prices charged for their services, establish a bookings calendar, schedule and cancel their bookings, communicate and share photos with pet parents, and receive payment from pet parents. We attract pet care providers to our platform primarily by word-of-mouth. To serve pet parents in any given market, we need a density of providers that is sufficient to provide pet parents with options for various services at various price points within an acceptable distance from their home. During certain peak periods, such as holidays, we have faced supply constraints in some markets.
In addition, pet care providers have in the past sourced bookings through our platform and then completed the transaction off of our platform and may continue to do so or may increase the share of bookings that they take off our platform. We endeavor to reduce this activity through continual improvements to our platform and other offerings, such as the Rover Guarantee, that incentivize pet care providers and pet parents to transact through Rover. In addition, our matching algorithm is designed to identify signals of high quality care that are observable from platform transactions, such as repeat booking activity, and to increase the chance that pet care providers exhibiting such signals are featured to pet parents. We also have notifications in the platform that encourage pet care providers to book through the platform, and we identify and deactivate serial diverters from the platform. Despite these attributes, we cannot prevent off-platform transactions entirely.
As of December 31, 2022, we had over 330,000 addressable pet care providers available to book on our platform, up 44% from December 31, 2021. An addressable pet care provider is defined as a provider who, in the past six months, has joined the platform for the first time or has serviced at least one booking, and remains available for future bookings. Our ability to attract pet care providers to our platform, enable them to generate income and dissuade them from diverting bookings off our platform is an important factor in our ability to serve pet parents and, in turn, drive the bookings, GBV, revenue, net income (loss), Adjusted EBITDA, and operating results of our business.
Service Booking Mix
Pet care providers set the price for their services offered on our platform. Overnight services are generally set at a higher price point than daytime services. Typically, the first booking on our platform has the highest GBV, as pet parents tend to start with us with a specific need in mind, such as a seven-day trip, that is beyond what they can ask of friends, family, or neighbors. Subsequent bookings tend to be for less total nights or walks as pet parents use our platform for shorter more frequent trips or start using daytime services.
As the mix of overnight and daytime services change, and as the number of nights or daytime services in an average booking changes, the average booking value, or ABV, will fluctuate. We have observed ABV increases since the second quarter of 2021 at the service level, likely in response to the rising rate of inflation in the markets we serve. Providers have increased prices
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particularly for overnight services and for their new pet parents, while retaining relatively lower prices for their legacy pet parents. We have seen the rate of ABV increases moderate starting in the second quarter of 2022. For the year ended December 31, 2022, ABV was $144, up 15% from the prior year period. Approximately two-thirds of this ABV increase was drive by increased pricing set by pet care providers, while the remainder was from a slightly higher number of nights in an average overnight booking. While increased pricing by pet care providers has helped drive increases in ABV, GBV and revenue, pet care providers could increase their prices on our platform to a point that causes pet owner demand and bookings to decline if such prices are deemed too high, either of which could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition. We have also introduced product features that have positively impacted ABV. For example, in the fourth quarter of 2021, we introduced our extended stay billing feature, which allows pet care providers to charge based on more specific pick-up and drop-off times agreed with pet owners. Overall, we expect ABV to grow modestly on a seasonal basis, although the trends and uncertainties addressed in “—Key Trends and Uncertainties” could adversely impact ABV growth trends.
We recognize GBV at the time the booking is made and recognize revenue at the time that the pet care service begins. We transfer fees earned by pet care providers upon completion of the service. In the case of overnight stays, the average period between the booking and the commencement of service is impacted by seasonality, as pet parents tend to book farther in advance of expected travel dates in the summer and for the holidays. GBV has also been impacted by COVID-19, due to pet parents booking closer to their travel dates given uncertainty surrounding pandemic-related restrictions and other health-related considerations. In the year ended December 31, 2022, we saw the lead time between overnight bookings and service of 20 days, compared to 18 days during the prior year period. In the year ended December 31, 2022, on a blended basis across services, we saw lead time between booking and service of 13 days, up from 12 days in the prior year period.
In the year ended December 31, 2022, overnight services made up 44% of total bookings, and the remaining 56% resulted from daytime services, compared to 45% of total bookings with overnight services and 55% with daytime services in the year ended December 31, 2021. Drop-in visits, which we categorize as daytime services, are sometimes substitutes for overnight care, especially with respect to cat care. In the year ended December 31, 2022, drop-in services made up 23% of total bookings, compared to 22% in the prior year period.
In the year ended December 31, 2022, 69% of GBV was with overnight services, and the remaining 31% was with daytime services, which was the same as the year ended December 31, 2021.
Cancellation Rates
Bookings and GBV are recorded prior to any cancellation by a pet parent or pet care provider. Because revenue is recognized when a service starts, a change in cancellation rate does not impact recognized revenue but does impact revenue growth rates. However, marketing investments and support costs are incurred ahead of GBV, and thus changes in marketing and support as a percentage of revenue are correlated to changes in cancellation rates.
We define cancellation rate as canceled bookings value divided by GBV for the relevant period. In 2019, prior to the onset of COVID-19, our cancellation rate was 9.3% of GBV, which increased to 20.5% of GBV in 2020 and 14.1% of GBV in 2021. In the year ended December 31, 2022, our cancellation rate remained at 14.0% of GBV, as cancellation rates stayed elevated and continued to closely correlate with users on our platform discussing COVID-19, illness, or similar topics. During peak pandemic periods, cancellation rates were closely correlated to COVID-19 levels reported in third-party wastewater data, which was used by public health officials to track the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in wastewater samples across the United States, although by the second half of 2022, this correlation decreased in the absence of another large COVID-19 wave. We currently expect elevated cancellation rates to remain during 2023 at approximately the 14.6% cancellation rate experienced during the fourth quarter of 2022, adjusted for seasonality on a quarterly basis.
Components of Results of Operations
Revenue
We derive revenue principally from fees paid by pet care providers and pet parents for use of our platform, net of discounts, cancellations, and refunds and sales tax paid on behalf of pet parents and pet care providers. We recognize revenue at the start of pet care services being provided under a booking. We also derive revenue from pet care provider onboarding fees in order to be listed on our platform.
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Costs and Expenses
Cost of Revenue (Exclusive of Depreciation and Amortization Shown Separately)
Cost of revenue (exclusive of depreciation and amortization shown separately) includes fees paid to payment processors for credit card and other funding transactions, server hosting costs, internal-use software amortization, third-party costs for background checks for pet care providers, operations and support costs associated with onboarding new pet care providers, costs related to the Rover Guarantee program, and other direct and indirect costs arising as a result of transactions that take place on our platform. We expect our cost of revenue (exclusive of depreciation and amortization shown separately) to vary from period-to-period on an absolute dollar basis, but remain relatively consistent as a percentage of revenue, excluding the impact of internal-use software amortization.
Operations and Support
Operations and support expenses include payroll, employee benefits, stock-based compensation and other personnel-related costs associated with our operations and support team, as well as third-party costs related to outsourced operations and support providers. This team assists with onboarding new pet care providers, quality reviews of pet care provider profiles, fraud monitoring and prevention across our marketplace, and community support provided via phone, email, and chat to our pet parents and pet care providers. This support includes assisting and responding to pet parents’ and pet care providers’ inquiries regarding the general use of our platform or how to make or modify a booking through our platform. We allocate a portion of overhead costs, which includes lease expense, utilities and information technology expense to operations and support expense based on headcount. Notwithstanding the decrease in operations and support expenses as a result of the restructuring discussed below, we expect that operations and support expenses will increase on an absolute dollar basis for the foreseeable future to the extent that we continue to see growth on our platform. Although we will continue to make strategic investments in these areas to ensure we are providing the best service possible for our users, we expect these expenses to decrease as a percentage of revenue over the longer term due to better leverage in our operations and increased scale of our marketplace.
Marketing
Marketing expenses include payroll, employee benefits, stock-based compensation expense and other personnel-related costs associated with our marketing team. These expenses also include digital marketing, brand marketing, public relations, linear and streaming video, marketing partnerships and other promotions. Digital marketing primarily consists of targeted promotional campaigns through electronic channels, such as social media, search engine marketing and optimization, affiliate programs and display advertising which are focused on pet parent acquisition and brand marketing. In 2020, we significantly curtailed our discretionary marketing spending in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in addition to reducing headcount to our marketing team as part of our restructuring plan. Beginning in the second quarter of 2021, we steadily increased discretionary marketing spending as demand returned after the vaccine rollout and easing of COVID-19 restrictions. Despite our plan to increase discretionary marketing in 2022, we pulled back on marketing spending due to multiple COVID-19 variant waves and their impact on the business. We intend to increase our investment in marketing which will likely cause marketing expense to increase slightly as a percentage of revenue, relative to recent periods.
Product Development
Product development expenses include payroll, employee benefits, stock-based compensation expense and other headcount related costs for employees in marketplace, data science, and engineering, as well as the maintenance and support costs for technology infrastructure, primarily related to non-revenue generating systems. In 2020, we reduced the headcount in our product development team as part of our restructuring plan. In 2021 and 2022, we increased the headcount as we invested in our product and engineering efforts. We expect that our product development expenses will increase on an absolute dollar basis and will vary from period-to-period as a percentage of revenue in the short term as we continue to invest in product development activities relating to ongoing improvements and maintenance of our technology platform. We expect these expenses to decrease as a percentage of revenue over the longer term due to better leverage in our product development.
The costs incurred in the preliminary stages of website and software development related to the platform are expensed as incurred. Once an application has reached the development stage, internal and external costs, if direct, incremental, and deemed by management to be significant, are capitalized as internal-use software and amortized on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives. Maintenance and enhancement costs, including those costs in the post-implementation stages, are typically expensed as incurred, unless such costs relate to substantial upgrades and enhancements to the website or software that result in added functionality, in which case the costs are capitalized and amortized on a straight-line basis over their estimated
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useful lives. Amortization expense related to capitalized internal-use software is included in cost of revenue (exclusive of depreciation and amortization shown separately).
General and Administrative
General and administrative expenses include payroll, employee benefits, stock-based compensation expense and other personnel-related costs for employees in corporate functions, legal settlements, as well as management, accounting, legal, corporate insurance and other expenses used to run the business. In 2020, we reduced the headcount in our general and administrative functions as part of our restructuring plan. In 2021 and 2022, we increased headcount, professional services, insurance and software to support the growth of our business and our requirements as a newly public company. We expect to incur additional general and administrative expenses to support operating as a public company and the overall expected growth in our business. While these expenses may vary from period-to-period as a percentage of revenue, we expect them to decrease as a percentage of revenue over the longer term.
Depreciation and Amortization
Depreciation and amortization expenses include depreciation of our property and equipment, leasehold improvements and amortization of our intangible assets. Amortization related to our internal-use software is included in cost of revenue (exclusive of depreciation and amortization shown separately).
Other Income (Expense), Net
Interest Income
Interest income consists primarily of interest earned on our cash, cash equivalents, and short-term and long-term investments.
Interest Expense
Interest expense consists of interest on our borrowing arrangements, including our unsecured letter of credit, and the amortization of debt discounts and deferred financing costs.
Change in Fair Value of Other Investments
Change in fair value of other investments consists of the fair value remeasurement of the convertible note receivable from our equity method investee. See Note 6—Investments, to our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this report for additional information.
Change in Fair Value of Earnout Liabilities
Change in fair value of earnout liabilities consists of the change in fair value of our contingent earnout liability. See Note 2—Summary of Significant Accounting Policies and Note 7—Fair Value, to our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this report for additional information.
Change in Fair Value of Derivative Warrant Liabilities
Change in fair value of derivative warrant liabilities consists of the change in fair value of our Class A common stock warrant liabilities. See Note 2—Summary of Significant Accounting Policies and Note 7—Fair Value, to our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this report for additional information.
Other Income (Expense), Net
Other income (expense), net consists primarily of realized and unrealized gains and losses on foreign currency transactions and realized gains and losses from the change in fair value of investments and financial instruments and sales of such investments.
Benefit from income taxes
We are subject to income taxes in the United States and several foreign jurisdictions. Foreign jurisdictions impose different statutory tax rates than in the United States. Accordingly, our effective tax rate varies based upon several factors, including our
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jurisdictional mix of income, changes in the valuation allowance on our U.S. deferred tax assets, the tax impacts related to acquisitions and investments, and changes in tax law.
We have recorded a valuation allowance against our U.S. deferred tax assets, including Federal and state net operating loss and credit carryforwards, and intend to maintain the valuation allowance until there is sufficient evidence to support its reversal.
Loss from equity method investments
Loss from equity method investments consists of our share of income or loss from our investment in an early-stage service for pet parents that is complementary to our current offerings.
Results of Operations
Given macroeconomic and other factors discussed above under “—Key Trends and Uncertainties” and the remaining uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and other non-COVID seasonal illnesses, financial performance for prior and current periods may not be indicative of future performance.
Comparisons for the Years Ended December 31, 2022 and 2021
The following tables set forth our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021:
Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||||
| (in thousands) | |||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 174,010 | $ | 109,837 | |||||||
Costs and expenses(1): | |||||||||||
| Cost of revenue (exclusive of depreciation and amortization shown separately below) | 41,058 | 26,536 | |||||||||
| Operations and support | 26,801 | 14,928 | |||||||||
| Marketing | 36,807 | 19,937 | |||||||||
| Product development | 27,529 | 22,712 | |||||||||
| General and administrative | 65,794 | 35,559 | |||||||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 5,938 | 7,327 | |||||||||
| Total costs and expenses | 203,927 | 126,999 | |||||||||
| Loss from operations | (29,917) | (17,162) | |||||||||
| Other income (expense), net: | |||||||||||
| Interest income | 3,974 | 49 | |||||||||
| Interest expense | (80) | (2,952) | |||||||||
| Change in fair value of other investments | 598 | — | |||||||||
| Change in fair value of earnout liabilities | — | (46,015) | |||||||||
| Change in fair value of derivative warrant liabilities | 4,579 | 2,089 | |||||||||
| Other income (expense), net | (617) | (284) | |||||||||
| Total other income (expense), net | 8,454 | (47,113) | |||||||||
| Loss before income taxes and equity method investments | (21,463) | (64,275) | |||||||||
| Benefit from income taxes | 82 | 226 | |||||||||
| Loss from equity method investments | (598) | — | |||||||||
| Net loss | $ | (21,979) | $ | (64,049) | |||||||
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________________
(1)Costs and expenses include stock-based compensation expense as follows:
Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||||
| (in thousands) | |||||||||||
| Operations and support | $ | 1,761 | $ | 545 | |||||||
| Marketing | 1,147 | 725 | |||||||||
| Product development | 5,407 | 3,821 | |||||||||
| General and administrative | 10,744 | 5,970 | |||||||||
| Total stock-based compensation expense | $ | 19,059 | $ | 11,061 | |||||||
The following table sets forth the components of our consolidated statements of operations for each of the periods presented as a percentage of revenue:
Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||||
| Revenue | 100 | % | 100 | % | |||||||
Costs and expenses(1): | |||||||||||
| Cost of revenue (exclusive of depreciation and amortization shown separately below) | 24 | 24 | |||||||||
| Operations and support | 15 | 14 | |||||||||
| Marketing | 21 | 18 | |||||||||
| Product development | 16 | 21 | |||||||||
| General and administrative | 38 | 32 | |||||||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 3 | 7 | |||||||||
| Total costs and expenses | 117 | 116 | |||||||||
| Loss from operations | (17) | (16) | |||||||||
| Other income (expense), net: | |||||||||||
| Interest income | 2 | — | |||||||||
| Interest expense | — | (3) | |||||||||
| Change in fair value of other investments | — | — | |||||||||
| Change in fair value of earnout liabilities | — | (42) | |||||||||
| Change in fair value of derivative warrant liabilities | 2 | 2 | |||||||||
| Other income (expense), net | — | — | |||||||||
| Total other income (expense), net | 4 | (43) | |||||||||
| Loss before income taxes and equity method investments | (13) | (59) | |||||||||
| Benefit from income taxes | — | — | |||||||||
| Loss from equity method investments | — | — | |||||||||
| Net loss | (13) | % | (59) | % | |||||||
________________
(1)Costs and expenses include stock-based compensation expense.
Revenue
Year Ended December 31, | Change | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | Amount | % | ||||||||||||||||||||
| (in thousands, except for percentages) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 174,010 | $ | 109,837 | $ | 64,173 | 58 | % | |||||||||||||||
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The increase in revenue was primarily due to a 32% increase in the number of bookings on our platform as a result of increased repeat bookings and new pet parent growth, in both the U.S. and international markets, as well as a 15% increase in ABV due to increasing prices set by pet care providers and higher provider onboarding revenue from an increase in pet care providers joining the platform.
We expect revenue to increase for the year ending December 31, 2023 driven by increased bookings resulting from continued recovery in travel, paired with moderate growth in average booking values. However, we cannot predict the impact of macroeconomic trends and COVID-19 variants and the longer term impact of the pandemic on consumer behavior. See “—Key Trends and Uncertainties” and “—Impact of COVID-19 and Other Health Trends.”
Cost of Revenue (Exclusive of Depreciation and Amortization Shown Separately)
Year Ended December 31, | Change | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | Amount | % | ||||||||||||||||||||
| (in thousands, except for percentages) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Cost of revenue (exclusive of depreciation and amortization shown separately below) | $ | 41,058 | $ | 26,536 | $ | 14,522 | 55 | % | |||||||||||||||
The increase in cost of revenue (exclusive of depreciation and amortization shown separately) was the result of a 58% increase in revenue as the business continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase includes a $7.3 million increase in merchant fees related to higher interchange fees imposed in 2022, a $3.3 million increase in costs related to provider onboarding, a $1.7 million increase in customer claim costs related to the Rover Guarantee program, a $1.4 million increase in technology platform costs, and a $0.6 million increase in trainer costs associated with GoodPup, our virtual dog training platform subsidiary. These increases were driven by changes in demand for our platform as illustrated by the 53% increase in GBV and related platform activity.
We expect cost of revenue (exclusive of depreciation and amortization shown separately) to increase in absolute dollars for the year ending December 31, 2023 due to increased bookings as the impact of the COVID-19 and related variants recedes, resulting in further recovery in travel and more workers returning to the office.
Operations and Support
Year Ended December 31, | Change | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 | Amount | % | ||||||||||||||||||||