Toletta Cats

Toletta Cats, founded in 2015 by Koji Hori, develops and markets a smart Internet of Things (IoT) cat litter box designed for in-home feline health monitoring. Originally named Hachi Tama Inc., the company rebranded in June 2020 to align with its core product, the 'Toletta'. The company's mission is to create a society where cats can live healthily to the age of 30.

The founder, Koji Hori, is a serial entrepreneur with a background in hospital management consulting and information systems at firms like NTT Data and Johnson & Johnson. This experience in human healthcare data inspired his approach to veterinary medicine, aiming to bring similar data-driven standardization and visibility to pet care. The initial idea for a pet care startup was sparked by the 2011 major earthquake in Japan, which highlighted the needs of displaced pets.

The Toletta system consists of a smart litter box and a connected mobile application. The litter box uses an AI-powered camera with facial recognition to identify individual cats, even in multi-cat households. It automatically measures and tracks key health indicators such as weight, urine volume, and frequency of use. This data is transmitted to the app, allowing owners to monitor health trends and share information with veterinarians. The system is designed to detect early signs of common feline illnesses, particularly urinary diseases like chronic kidney disease. The business model operates as a "SaaS Plus a box," where customers acquire the hardware and pay a subscription fee for the ongoing monitoring service and app access.

Headquartered in Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan, the company has actively pursued global expansion, particularly into the U.S. market. It has participated in accelerator programs like Plug and Play Japan and Leap Venture Studio, which is funded by Mars Petcare. Toletta Cats has raised a cumulative total of $6.48M in funding from investors including the Maezawa Fund, R/GA Ventures, and HibiShin Capital.

Keywords: pet tech, smart litter box, feline health, IoT, cat care, animal health monitoring, veterinary technology, AI camera, pet wellness, chronic kidney disease detection, urine analysis, weight tracking, multi-cat households, SaaS, remote pet monitoring, predictive health, companion animal, digital health, pet data