An entrepreneur has taken inspiration from technology used by his marketing business to set up another one helping people to find their lost pets.
Animal lover Luke Bailey launched PawFinder at the end of last month selling identity tags which use QR codes to enable the finder of a lost pet to access its owner’s contact details and allows the owner to track its location.
The idea came about after using near field technology (NFC), which allows two devices to communicate wirelessly when they are close together, on business cards produced for customers of Into The Wild.
Luke, pictured above, whose third Leek-based business is a barber shop, said: “I have a Chow Chow and the breed can’t be trusted off a lead. She has come off it before and bolted – it was quite a traumatic experience so I knew I needed to do something to help should it ever happen again.
“I have found other businesses are using this technology for similar things, but they are very small companies offering less than us so I’m hoping we can reach many more pet owners.”
The aluminium tags are engraved on the front with a pet portrait and feature a QR code on the back with which links to a pet profile.
When purchasing the tag, customers sign up for a £1.99 monthly fee to benefit from GPS tracking on the tags with the location pinpointed on Google maps, as well as other benefits such as discount codes for pet products.
Luke, who runs PawFinder with fellow co-founder Dan Burton, above, added: “We could have used NFC for the tags, but we thought QR codes were more simple.
“We’ve seen a real gap in the market and have had really good feedback so far.
“We just want to help people get their lost pets back home.”
- Luke is already popular in the animal world, with over 10,000 people following his @heyimthumper Instagram page featuring his pet rabbits.
