Wagz Inc. acquires new domain name Wagz.com and signs licensing deal with Black+Decker
Wagz.com, a domain name continuously registered since February 13, 1999 has a new owner, Wagz, Inc. Wagz is a fairly new smart pet brand offering a connected smart collar currently, with a smart feeder and smart dog door in the works.
The smart Wagz collar is a tracker, virtual fencing, health monitoring device and more.
Although whois records do not currently show Wagz Inc. as the owners of the domain name, it would appear they likely purchased the domain name around September 9, 2017 from Bob “Wagz” Wagner of Onalaska, Wisconsin.
How did Wagz Inc. do for protecting the brand via domains?
Pretty good in general, simply because they acquired the exact match .com domain name Wagz.com.
Consider the fact that Wagz “sounds like” Wags”, the company has not yet acquired Wags.com based on whois records. That premium domain name is owned by GoDaddy and it’s NameFind investment portfolio. GoDaddy appears to have recently acquired the domain when it acquired Named.com’s domain name portfolio of around 200,000 domain names. It would be a good “cover” domain to own for the Wagz brand name.
Wagz Inc. started on the domain name GetWagz.com, so Wagz.com is an upgrade for the company/brand and a very wise purchase.
Wagz Inc. is a new partner in Black+Decker’s licensing program, according to a recent October 20, 2017 press release.
An October 11, 2017 press release by Wagz Inc. indicated an Indiegogo launch of the Wagz smart collar. So it would appear that Black+Decker jumped in very recently with the licensing deal? Black+Decker’s press release stated a product launch this holiday season 2017 (November)… and the Wagz website states November 2017. The October 11 PR by Wagz Inc. mentions a March 2018 product launch, so the new licensing deal appears to be advancing the available date by 4 months.
It’s not clear if the smart collar will house the Black+Decker branding or Wagz but it is pretty clear this is a new deal based on the two different releases, only 9 days appart and the website showing one release date, while the Indigogo campaign is still live at the time of publication, with 18 days on only raising $1,466 of the $50K they are seeking.
To note, since whois records have not fully changed, it is unclear if the domain purchase by Wagz Inc. was a lease or direct purchase. It is also not clear what the licensing deal is with Black+Decker, but it appears fresh.
Also to note, on the Indigogo page, Wagz Inc. states funding of $1.2M seed round in June 2016 and an A Round of $2.5M in July 2017.
Looks like GoDaddy have put up Wags.com with a minimum offer of $10,000. Not bad if they can get for low 5 figs.
Thanks for sharing!