Hi readers!
As a cat parent, my idea of Living the Dream often revolves around:
Not having to scrape up puke ever again;
Finding the Ultimate Upholstery (i.e. scratch- and vomit-resistant);
Not having to worry whether food left overnight in the cat feeder will be a smelly, unappetising mess by morning.
(And if you’re also a cat parent, I’m guessing you harbour similar dreams).
It looks like one of those dreams may come true!
This week, we catch up with Frank Carlson, founder of Swiss startup Smart Pet Care. Carlson has created the iKitty, which serves wet cat food not in pouches or cans, but recyclable capsules. It also collects behavioural data.
It has yet to launch, but it is backed by Purina's Unleashed accelerator and may hit the market in 2026, according to its website.
The iKitty sounds great. At the end of the day though, a lot depends on the end users: our beloved felines. Not only that: cats have proven pretty adept at hacking their way into feeders (read on for some hilarious examples).
What do you think? Will smart feeders like the iKitty outsmart the feline mind? Or do you think that the only things cats require to hack a machine is time and determination?
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iKitty: Delivering cat food in capsule form
What do you get when Swiss engineering meets feline care?
You get the iKitty, which is like a feline version of a capsule coffee machine.
“The capsules make the business interesting for us,” said Frank Carlson, founder of Swiss startup Smart Pet Care.
“The inspiration behind Smart Pet Care was really to give cats and owners a life that was more convenient and that provides healthier and easier solutions for owners and cats,” Carlson told Feline Business Brief.
Convenience is the key focus of the iKitty (which begins shipping in 2026, according to Smart Pet Care’s website).
After speaking with over 700 cat parents, the company found similar complaints: “wet food is healthy, but a hassle to handle; leftovers smell bad; feeding routines are stressful and inflexible; leaving home means relying on neighbors or sitter; and you’d love to know more about your cat’s nutrition.”
Frank Carlson, founder of Smart Pet Care
How does it work?
The iKitty stores up to 15 fresh wet food capsules. Each portion is contained in a sealed airtight container. No refrigeration required.
The feeding schedule can be personalised to the cat. The in-app feeding calculator helps work out the ideal number of daily meals.
When feeding time comes, the iKitty serves the meal,
And then disposes the used capsule into an airtight bin.
As Smart Pet Care prepares to enter the market, it will receive mentorship and support from Nestlé Purina’s Unleashed Accelerator, which it joined in February.
From feeder to ecosystem
The iKitty is only the start. Being a smart device, it is designed to slot into a wider Internet of Things network.
“The iKitty is really one of the first products that we want to develop in an ecosystem of several devices to track health data of the cat,” Carlson said.
Similar to the coffee space, Smart Pet Care’s use of capsules creates clear business advantages:
Since the capsules need to be iKitty-specific, this encourages the adoption of subscription models;
Partnerships with food producers: The feeder uses commercially-sourced wet food, meaning Smart Pet Care can collaborate with feline food brands.
At the same time, the iKitty can yield valuable health data on the cat’s eating habits, making it a useful tool in feline preventive care.
“With the iKitty you can measure how fast the cat is eating, what frequency the cat is eating,” Carlson said. “All these details can help you (or help the vet) to know how the cat is doing, whether there have been any behavioural changes.”
Moving parts
While novel, Smart Pet Care’s approach is not without challenges. A device like the iKitty is complex.
“The iKitty is made up of a lot of components that have to work together … from an app that tells the system when to open and what to measure, to a machine that can open a sealed capsule reliably, then present the food so the cat can consume it,” Carlson said.
Consistency and reliability are also key, he added.
“The most challenging part is really to make these systems work together very smoothly: open every single capsule the same way, close every single capsule the same way, put it in the trash, and keep a lock on the smell.”
There’s also the question of choice (which interestingly, mirror those from coffee drinkers who use capsule-based coffee machines): Which cat foods will be available in capsule form? Will there be customisable food capsules? Are re-usable capsules possible?
Watch this space.
The smart feeder race heats up
Automated wet food feeders are a tough engineering challenge, but competition is growing. Here are three (similar, but not the same) innovations to watch:
BistroCat (US)
BistroCat offers a Wi-Fi-enabled, temperature-controlled dispenser that stores portions of wet food, sealing uneaten servings in a cooled chamber.
Catspad (France)
Catspad dispenses dry food and water based on an individual cat’s microchip or collar tag. The device is not wet-food compatible, but offers tracking and app-based analytics.
Petlibro One RFID Smart Feeder (China/US)
Known for its dry-food dispensers, Petlibro is now offering wet/dry feeding systems for mixed diets.
Can engineering precision outsmart feline smarts?
Overall, an extra-smart cat feeder sounds like a godsend. Until you read stories like these:
Two tuxedo cats were filmed sitting in front of their food dispenser. One started pawing relentlessly at the machine, while the other waited. Eventually, the dispenser beeped in defeat, opened the lid and shouted, “It’s meal time! It’s meal time!”
Another cat learned to actually unlock a Petlibro feeder. She pressed her face against the side of the feeder to unlock it, then used her paw to press a button on the front, triggering the food dispensing mechanism.
Several stories on Reddit describe cats tipping feeders over or just plain trashing them. One person ended up “taking one of those blue plastic storage bins, putting the feeder inside, cutting a hole in the bin where the food comes out, and then wrapping a bungee cord (or two!) around the bin so it would hold the lid down.”
“It worked perfectly for years, except … my cat learned that he could put his paw through the hole and up the chute of the feeder and it would drop a little bit of food.”
Thanks for reading! Here's a friendly feline face for you. 😺
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