05-08-2025
Love Your Pet? Edison Deng Has Some Smart-Tech Ideas For You
The global population of pet dogs (500 million) and pet cats (220 million) exceeds the human headcount in all but a handful of the world's nations and is growing, according to reports. Chinese entrepreneur Edison Deng is out to find new ways to tap that sprawling market by combining the warmth of a raising pet with the convenience of cutting-edge consumer electronics.
Helping pet owners with smart-tech items also makes good business sense, Deng recently told Forbes China. 'It's an attractive consumer tech niche characterized by high price points, steep R&D barriers, and strong potential for building premium, tech-forward brand value,' he said
A member of the Forbes China 30 Under 30 list in 2024, Deng developed a love of pets through his family. Shenzhen-based Xing Risheng Group, founded by his father, supplies aquatic products and pet food to chains such as Walmart and PetSmart. Deng himself has raised more than a dozen pets – mostly dogs -- over the years, including Ragdolls, British Shorthairs, Devon Rexes, Persians, Akitas, Giant Poodles, and his favorite, a Maltese. Their companionship helped to spark his entrepreneurial vision, he said.
After earning an undergraduate degree from the University of California at San Diego and a graduate degree in marketing from Boston University, Deng was ready to take the plunge as an entrepreneur himself with an eye to coming up with new tools for 'reimaging the relationship between humans and their pets,' he explained.
The result: PetSnowy. Deng struck upon a company name that references his dog 'Snowball' while in California in 2020. Later that year, he returned to his hometown of Shenzhen in China and assembled a team of hardware and electronics talent with the mission of creating smart pet products. Though chairman and CEO, Deng emphasized that he works with his team in a flat, collaborative workspace on product development and brand-building.
PetSnowy's first big hit: 'Smart litter boxes' that simplify one of the least pleasant parts of cat ownership. PetSnowy's SNOW Smart Litter Box comes with a unique deodorizing system and trash bins with odor-blocking sealing. Instead of cheaper PP plastic, PetSnowy's box is made with ABS, which he said has better anti-bacterial, anti-mold, and easy-to-clean properties. In 2023, PetSnowy became the top-performing pet-related campaign in crowdfunding platform Indiegogo's history, raising nearly $2 million and setting a new category record, Deng said. The brand's official website, has since become its largest sales channel, shipping products directly to customers in the U.S., Europe, the U.K., Canada, Australia and Japan. PetSnowy's latest success: A 'SMILE Smart Pet Dryer Box' that helps dry wet pets.
Sales last year doubled to $40 million, with 85% coming from international markets. Deng anticipates revenue will double in 2025, regardless of tariff uncertainty, driven by continued momentum in core markets -- especially in the U.S. and Japan, significant expansion in China, new products, upgrades of existing products, and increased investment in AI-driven innovations and digital marketing. Global growth in pet-raising won't hurt, either.
Deng looked back over his career and credited his dad for 'invaluable lessons about meticulous operational management, quality control, and maintaining strong international client relationships.' His father's decades of experience in manufacturing pet products for global retailers also helped to shaped young Deng's emphasis on consistent product quality, Deng said.
There's more than admiration involved, though. Deng's been able to tap into his father's group for help with manufacturing and personnel support. PetSnowy is able to access plants in Huizhou, Shenzhen, and Hanoi, along with additional facilities in Chaoshan and Guangzhou. Deng still has positions in the father's group company, though he spends most of his time on PetSnowy, Deng said.
PetSnowy's focus on dogs and cats, rather than aquatics, is apparent in its logo. A cloud shape mirrors the bottom of a cat's or dog's paw while a snowflake perched in the corner nods to the 'Snowy' name and the brand's design, Deng said. Together, the images aim to express PetSnowy's values of 'comfort, cleanliness, and human-pet harmony,' he said.
Besides his dad, Deng credits part of his business approach to 'first principles' thinking that dates to ancient Greece but that has been embraced by the likes of Elon Musk, Apple and Dyson. To Deng, that means 'starting from the fundamental needs of users and building solutions based on physical truths and objective logic, rather than simply adding features onto existing products and labeling them as 'innovations.' Real innovation means solving real users' pain points through thoughtful, original ideas that deliver tangible value.'
Looking ahead, Deng aims to generate new products and service improvements in an AI Lab he formed last year, such as personalized pet health monitoring that leverages user data to detect potential health issues. He is also looking into AI-powered behavior recognition systems that automatically adjust product settings, such as airflow or deodorization intensity.
Geographically, Deng also sees a potentially big market at home in China to tap in new ways. He has focused on international markets so far only because of better profit margins and faster interest in new items. 'Although pet spending in China is indeed growing rapidly, PetSnowy has initially prioritized the more mature pet-care markets of the U.S. and Japan due to their quicker adoption of premium, tech-driven pet products. As Chinese consumer preferences evolve towards premiumization and intelligent pet-care solutions, PetSnowy expects significant future growth domestically.'
He's already thinking long-term his supply chain by strategizing about how to integrate the PetSnowy brand with his family's established supply network to unlock greater innovation and operational synergy. In his view, the biggest hurdle to cross-sector breakthroughs for companies with a more traditional supply chain lies in 'an outdated mindset and technical inertia.' To overcome that, Deng believes in 'bridging generations' -- combining the 'deep manufacturing experience of legacy enterprises with the agility, ambition and digital fluency of next-generation entrepreneurs.' He gained experience with that last year as project director of SAP digital transformation across six manufacturing entities under the Xing Risheng Group. The project was successfully launched in five months, making Deng one of the youngest SAP implementation directors in China, he said.
One niche you won't find PetSnowy in: pet food. When asked whether PetSnowy would ever enter the competitive pet food market—a common path for many pet brands—he joked: 'If we ever get into pet food, we'll probably just buy a farm in New Zealand or Australia, and produce for our own users. We won't join the race to the bottom.' Why bother, when there's a big and growing market out there for innovative ways to link up pets, pet lovers and new technology?
