BY TAYLOR SOPER on May 24, 2018 at 6:00 am

Rover CEO Aaron Easterly accepting the award for CEO of the Year at the 2016 GeekWire Awards. (GeekWire file photo)

When Rover started seven years ago, many in the startup community snickered. There was no real business model, they said. A marketplace that matched dog owners with caretakers wouldn’t work, they said. It only got off the ground because of its well-connected venture capitalist founder, many noted.

As it turns out, the naysayers barked up the wrong tree.

Rover today announced a massive $155 million funding round, propelling the Seattle-based company to near-unicorn status and making it one of the highest-valued privately-held startups in the Pacific Northwest. It’s one of the largest investments in a Washington company ever; other recent large fundraising rounds include SpaceFlight ($150 million), OfferUp ($130 million), and Remitly ($115 million), according to PitchBook data.

A majority of the round — $125 million — was led by T. Rowe Price, the publicly-owned global asset management firm that has backed companies like FlipKart, Glassdoor, Redfin, Twitter, Dropbox, and other tech giants. New investors Winslow Capital and Cross Creek participated, as did existing shareholders TCV, Greenspring Associates, and Spark Capital. Rover also closed on a $30 million credit facility from Silicon Valley Bank.

It’s better to raise money when you don’t need it.

Total funding for Rover — often described as a the Airbnb for pets — stands at $310 million. The fresh cash infusion comes less than a year after the company raised a $65 million round. It did not disclose a new valuation.

“We are not a unicorn,” said Rover CEO Aaron Easterly, referring to those privately-held companies commanding a valuation of $1 billion or more. He added that Rover still has much work in front of them.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3985411&forum_id=2#36118595)