Cape Town startup BuddyMeal has launched what it describes as South Africa's first personalised dry dog food, made specifically for each dog. Owners answer an online questionnaire covering their dog's breed, age, weight, body condition, activity level, sensitivities and health goals, and BuddyMeal's system works out the right food and the exact daily portion.

Each order is prepared, weighed and packed at its own facility in the Western Cape, labelled with the dog's name and feeding instructions, and delivered free nationwide.

Founder and chief executive Benjamin Callens built the business after moving to South Africa from Belgium and adopting his dog, Buddy. Having worked in consumer goods and pet food, he had seen personalised dog nutrition grow in Europe, but found nothing similar here, only a wall of premium brands and no clear way to know which one suited his dog.

"Talking to other owners, I kept hearing the same quiet worry: am I actually feeding my dog correctly?" Callens says. "South African pet owners care deeply and pay premium prices, but get almost no individual guidance."

The meal plan changes as the dog does, for example, when a puppy becomes an adult or a dog reaches a healthier weight, and there are gluten-free, soy-free, grain-free and chicken-free options.

The food is made under HACCP food-safety controls with batch traceability on every production run, formulated to FEDIAF guidelines, the main European standard for complete pet nutrition, and every plan combination is checked by a certified animal nutritionist. BuddyMeal says it sources locally where it can and imports only ingredients local suppliers cannot match in quality.

The market is large and growing. Stats SA's General Household Survey puts the number of dogs in South African households at about 7.5 million, and Trade Intelligence values the local pet FMCG market at R10.4 billion after 15.8% growth in 2025. BuddyMeal has not published its prices, customer numbers or how it is funded.

BuddyMeal's own site runs the questionnaire and sets out its meal plans. The model is well established overseas. In the UK, Tails.com builds a tailored kibble blend for each dog from a short profile and delivers it monthly on subscription, and in the US several fresh-food brands work the same way. Callens says personalisation is about more than putting a dog's name on a bag, and that every bag is made for one specific dog.

The interesting part is the business model rather than the kibble. Once a dog's daily portion is known exactly, the company also knows exactly when the bag will run out, which turns a supermarket purchase into a predictable repeat order and gives BuddyMeal a direct relationship with the customer instead of a shelf in someone else's store. That is the same logic behind Obiflex bundling prescribing, coaching and delivery into one plan.

The hard part is cost. Weighing, packing and labelling a bag for every individual dog, then delivering it free anywhere in the country, is much more expensive than filling standard bags for retailers, so the price has to be high enough to cover that while staying close to the premium brands owners already buy. Without published prices, it is not yet possible to judge that.

It is a good example of something South African founders do well: take a model proven elsewhere, adapt it to local supply and delivery, and sell it into a market where buying online is now routine.

You might also like our piece on Squirrel Away listing its own fund on the JSE, FindHomes opening its rental data for free, and New York's click-to-cancel rule for subscriptions.

Get more SA tech and business news and subscribe to The Open Letter.