On 11 November 2025, Rover Group, the Seattle-based pet-care company, completed its acquisition of Mad Paws, Australia's largest pet-sitting and dog-boarding marketplace, for A$62 million. If you've been using Mad Paws to find care for your dog or cat, or if you've been earning sits through their platform, this change is worth understanding.
What We Know About the Acquisition
Mad Paws had 300,000 active pet parents, 70,000 registered service providers, and facilitated over 400,000 bookings in 2024. That scale is now under US ownership. In Rover's existing international markets, sitters pay a reported 20% commission per booking, and owners pay a separate service fee of around 5 to 11%. How exactly those structures will apply to Australia is still being confirmed, but it's a fair question to keep an eye on.
How Australian Sitters Are Responding
Across pet-sitting forums and Facebook groups, the general mood has been cautious. Many sitters are asking about the flat-fee model they were used to, how Australian privacy regulations will be handled, and whether the platform will still feel local. These are reasonable questions, and it will take time to see how Rover answers them in practice.
Worth Doing the Maths
Based on Rover's reported international commission rates, a sitter doing 10 nights of pet sitting per month at $70 per night could be handing over around $140 per month to the platform. Sitterly is currently free for sitters during our growth phase. Our long-term model is a flat-fee sitter-side subscription, homeowners are always free, and we never take a per-booking commission.
What This Means for Pet Owners
For homeowners, the main thing to watch is trust continuity. Sitters you've relied on may choose to move to other platforms, and prices could shift as the integration takes shape. The community feel of Mad Paws was one of its biggest strengths. Whether that translates into a global corporate structure is something only time will tell.
Why Australian-Owned Platforms Matter
Platforms built for Australia, by Australians, work within Australian consumer law, Australian privacy regulations, and understand what local homeowners and sitters actually need. There is a real difference between a platform optimised for dog walks in Seattle and one designed around placing a trusted person in someone's home in Hobart. Both can exist. But it's worth knowing which one you're using.
- Australian-owned platforms operate under Australian consumer law and the Privacy Act 1988
- Local communities tend to build more accountable, longer-term trust
- Subscription models avoid per-booking commissions that can push prices up for everyone
- Australian support teams understand local contexts, from state rental laws to seasonal pet care
- Transparent pricing on both sides makes for a healthier marketplace
“The best care for your pet comes from someone who chose this work because they love animals, not because an algorithm filled their schedule.”
- Sitterly Community
What Should You Do Right Now?
If you were a Mad Paws homeowner, it's a good idea to save contact details of sitters you've trusted and explore where they may be building their presence. If you were a Mad Paws sitter, now is a good time to establish yourself across multiple platforms, particularly ones that work on a subscription model rather than taking a cut of each sit. Either way, this acquisition is a reminder that the Australian pet-care market is growing fast, and who holds your trust in that market is worth thinking about.
Want to dig deeper? We've written follow-up guides covering the Australian platform alternatives in 2026, what Mad Paws sitters specifically need to know, and a decision framework for whether to switch.
Rover and Mad Paws are trademarks of their respective owners. Fee structures referenced above reflect publicly reported information from Rover's existing international markets and may not reflect the final structure applied in Australia. Sitterly has no affiliation with or endorsement from either company.
