Rover Group completed its acquisition of Mad Paws on 11 November 2025, paying Mad Paws shareholders A$0.14 cash a share, which Rover's own announcement put at a total equity value of approximately A$62 million on a fully diluted basis. Mad Paws told its members at the time that nothing would change for them. Nine months later, on 22 August 2026, its pages carried the Mad Paws name, a 20% sitter commission and three cancellation windows. What changed is who owns it, and how much the company is now obliged to tell the public.
Every number below is linked to the announcement or live page it came from, because the figures attached to this deal circulate with no source at all, including on an earlier version of this page. Anything we could not trace or read live on 22 August 2026 is not printed.
Rover paid A$0.14 a share and completed on 11 November 2025
Rover announced a binding Scheme Implementation Deed with Mad Paws on 21 July 2025, stating that shareholders would receive "A$0.14 per Mad Paws Share in cash, which implies a total transaction equity value for Mad Paws of approximately A$62 million on a fully-diluted basis". That figure included about A$13 million expected from the separate sale of the Pet Chemist business, a condition of the deal proceeding. Rover's announcement of the deed carries the wording in full.
| What | The figure | Where it was stated |
|---|---|---|
| Announced | 21 July 2025, United States dateline, carried by AAP on 22 July | Deed announcement |
| Price a share | A$0.14 cash | Deed announcement |
| Implied equity value | About A$62 million, fully diluted | Deed announcement |
| Included in that value | About A$13 million expected from the sale of Pet Chemist | Deed announcement |
| Scheme effective | 3 November 2025, after shareholder and Supreme Court of New South Wales approval | Completion announcement |
| Completed | 11 November 2025 | Completion announcement |
| The brand | Intended to keep operating as its own brand, based in Sydney | Completion announcement |
Rover's completion announcement is the source for the last three rows. Both Rover announcements also count how many pet parents and pet care providers Mad Paws has in Australia, and we have not reprinted those counts. They are an acquirer's description of what it bought, they include everyone who ever registered rather than everyone currently listed, and nobody outside the company can audit them. The figure we could check ourselves is the more useful one. On 22 August 2026 the Mad Paws sitter sitemap carried 29,740 sitter profile URLs, which is the pool of profiles you can browse.
Mad Paws is no longer an ASX company, and that is the change with the longest tail
The deal was done by scheme of arrangement, a court-approved process under Part 5.1 of the Corporations Act that ASIC covers in Regulatory Guide 60. Mad Paws put the result plainly in its own post on 12 November 2025: "Mad Paws moves from being a publicly listed ASX company to a privately held business under Rover."
While Mad Paws was listed, it had to tell the market about information a reasonable person would expect to affect its share price, and tell it promptly. That duty is continuous disclosure, and ASIC sets out how it polices it in Regulatory Guide 73. A company that has left the ASX has no market to announce to. On 22 August 2026 madpaws.com.au/investor-centre redirected to a legacy investor relations page on rover.com. Whatever the next fee change turns out to be, it will not arrive as an ASX announcement. This is general information about disclosure, not legal advice, and ASIC is the authority on what any particular company must lodge.
The published fees, nine months after completion
Mad Paws' sitter payment FAQ states its service fee as "15% of the Pet Service Fee (including GST) for sitters that signed up before June 29, 2017 09:59pm AEST", with sitters joining after that cut-off "charged 20% of the Pet Service Fee". That was live on 22 August 2026, nine months after completion. Mad Paws' own post of 12 November 2025 said "Nothing changes right now" and that bookings, reviews, messages and payments "remain the same". We found no archived copy of the fee page from before the deal, so we are not claiming the rate held steady. We are telling you what it says now, and when we read it.
| Who pays | What | Is the amount published? |
|---|---|---|
| Sitter | 20% of the pet service fee, or 15% for sitters who joined before 29 June 2017, 9.59pm AEST | Yes, on the sitter payment FAQ |
| Owner | The sitter's nightly rate | Yes, on each sitter's profile |
| Owner | A booking fee on top of that rate | No. It appears inside the booking flow only |
| Owner cancelling late | 50% of the service fee is refunded once the sitter's window has passed | Yes, on the cancellation FAQ |
| Owner cancelling at any time | The booking fee, not refundable unless the sitter cancels | Yes, on the cancellation FAQ |
Each sitter picks one of three cancellation windows: a full refund until midday one day before, seven days before, or fourteen days before. Miss it and the published position is a 50% refund. Those terms are on the cancellation FAQ, read there on 22 August 2026.
Rover's own pages would not open for us, so we have not printed Rover's numbers
Rover's international commission and owner service fees are repeated all through Australian coverage of this deal, including in the earlier version of this article. On 22 August 2026 both rover.com/au and Rover's press release pages returned HTTP 403 to our request, so we could not read them at source and will not restate them. Treat a rate quoted from Rover's other markets as describing another country. The fees on an Australian booking are the ones published on madpaws.com.au.
Mad Paws' own pages disagree about whether there is insurance
On 22 August 2026 one Mad Paws sitter FAQ referred to "Our 10 million dollar liability insurance policy, which covers you and your client's pets". The Mad Paws Guarantee page stated in capitals that "THE MAD PAWS GUARANTEE IS NOT INSURANCE", named no underwriter, capped pet injury at $8,000 and property damage and third party injury at $25,000 each, set a $350 minimum on pet injury and property damage claims before anything is paid, and said amounts payable "are in excess of any insurance coverage or insurer payment".
Both are Mad Paws' own words, quoted together because quoting one alone would be unfair to them. Your job is not to decide who is right, it is to work out which document would be produced if you made a claim.
A guarantee is not a policy
A platform guarantee is a promise a company makes about its own money, on terms it writes. An insurance policy is a contract with an insurer, regulated as one. Read whichever document names the limits, the excess and the exclusions. This is general information, not insurance advice. Your insurer and your product disclosure statement are the authority on your own cover.
If your data does move offshore, Australian privacy law goes with it
The usual worry when an Australian platform is bought by a United States company is that Australian privacy protection stops at the border. Australian Privacy Principle 8 says otherwise. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's guidance on cross-border disclosure of personal information states that "An APP entity that discloses personal information to an overseas recipient is accountable for any acts or practices of the overseas recipient in relation to the information that would breach the APPs". A booking bought here also stays a service bought here, covered by the ACCC's consumer guarantees. Both are general information, and a complaint about your own data goes to the OAIC, not to a blog.
Whether to switch depends on which of two things you are buying
Australians shopping here are choosing between two products, and the acquisition changed neither.
| If this is you | Where to look | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You want a paid professional with a stated vet expense cap | Mad Paws or Pawshake | Both publish a dollar cap with conditions, and you have a paid service to complain about |
| You need dog walking, daycare or boarding at the sitter's home | A paid marketplace | Sitterly offers none of those |
| You want someone living in your home with no money passing between you | An exchange platform | The accommodation is the whole of the exchange |
| You book twice a year and your usual sitter has stayed put | Stay where you are | Switching costs you the relationship and gains little |
| You are a sitter whose earnings turn on the commission rate | Watch rather than bolt | No Australian change has been announced. Run your own numbers the day one is |
One correction to something we published earlier. A previous version of this article set a 20% commission against an annual membership fee and produced a break-even in sits per year, using a competitor subscription price it never sourced. The two do not buy the same thing. On a paid marketplace the sitter earns money and the platform takes a share of it. On an exchange platform nobody is paid for the sit at all. There is no meaningful break-even between them, so we removed it rather than repair it.
For the rest of the field, our comparison of Pawshake and Mad Paws sets the two paid marketplaces against each other, Mad Paws alternatives in Australia covers what else exists, and every fee on eight Australian platforms puts them in one table. Sitterly's own position is on the pricing page with nothing underneath it: free for homeowners permanently, free for sitters during the current growth phase, a flat-fee subscription planned and stated in advance, and no commission on any sit. Sitterly supports the connection. Homeowners and sitters remain responsible for their own arrangements.
Five things to check before your next booking, on any platform
- Search your suburb, not your capital. Marrickville rather than Sydney, Coburg rather than Melbourne, Woolloongabba rather than Brisbane. A national provider count says nothing about who will turn up.
- Get to a screen showing the total charge, booking fee included, before you enter a card.
- Check which of the three cancellation windows your sitter chose, and diarise the date.
- Find the document naming dollar limits and exclusions, and read that instead of the homepage reassurance.
- Agree in writing, before the sit, who authorises emergency vet treatment, up to what amount, and at which clinic. No platform does that for you.
Common questions about Rover, Mad Paws and Australia
- Is Rover available in Australia?
- Rover owns Mad Paws, and Australians book at madpaws.com.au. Rover's completion announcement of 11 November 2025 said Mad Paws was intended to keep operating as its own brand based in Sydney, and on 22 August 2026 the brand was still trading under its own name. Whether Rover also sells directly into Australia we could not check, because rover.com/au returned HTTP 403 to our request that day.
- How much did Rover pay for Mad Paws?
- A$0.14 cash a share, which Rover's July 2025 announcement said implied a total equity value of about A$62 million fully diluted, including roughly A$13 million expected from the separate sale of the Pet Chemist business.
- Did Mad Paws fees go up after the Rover acquisition?
- The published sitter commission on 22 August 2026 was 20%, or 15% for sitters who joined before 29 June 2017. We found no archived copy of that page from before the deal, so we cannot tell you whether the rate moved, only what it reads today. The owner-side booking fee exists but its amount is not published outside the booking flow.
- Is Mad Paws still an Australian company?
- It is an Australian business owned by a United States parent, and its own post of 12 November 2025 says it moved from a publicly listed ASX company to a privately held business under Rover.
- Should I switch away from Mad Paws?
- Only if you want a different product. A paid in-home booking with a published vet expense cap is what Mad Paws sells. Someone living in your home with no money changing hands is an exchange platform. No acquisition changes which of the two suits your animal.
See how Sitterly compares on the row that matters to you
Put Sitterly's terms beside the rows above rather than taking our word for them. Read what Sitterly charges, then create a free profile and check the listings in your own suburb.
