Whisker

Whisker is an Auburn Hills, Michigan-based pet technology company that designs and manufactures the Litter-Robot line of automatic cat litter boxes and the Feeder-Robot automatic pet feeder. Founded in 2000 by Brad Baxter as Automated Pet Care Products, Inc., the company originally operated under the name AutoPets before rebranding to Whisker.

Baxter, a former Ford Motor Company engineer, licensed an existing patent and developed the first Litter-Robot using startup funding from his parents. He sold the product directly to consumers online, and the business became profitable by 2005. Over the next two decades, Whisker iterated on the design, introducing WiFi-enabled models and expanding into new product categories.

In 2019, Whisker raised $31 million in growth equity financing from Chicago-based Pondera Holdings LLC to fund expansion. The company completed a $10 million investment in 2022 to expand its manufacturing plant in Juneau, Wisconsin. By 2023, Whisker announced that 1 million Litter-Robot units had been sold since the company's inception.

Whisker products are designed, assembled, and serviced in the United States and sold in more than 20 countries, including the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, and much of the European Union. The company holds more than 65 global patents and employs 575+ full-time U.S. workers, including a team of 60+ engineers.