Greeley-based Wild Calling Pet Foods closes in on $4M equity raise

GREELEY — Wild Calling Pet Foods LLC has raised about $3.4 million in a private-equity offering, up from the $1.7 million it had raised a year ago.

A recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said the company had raised $1.93 million out of a goal of $4 million.

But Wild Calling’s chief executive, Tim Petersen, said in a phone interview with BizWest that the offering has raised about $3.4 million, leaving the company just $600,000 from its goal.

“We’re actually in the process of selling the rest of it out,” Petersen said. “It should be completed out by the end of first quarter. We have only $600,000 left.”

Petersen said Wild Calling will use the new funds for growth capital.

“We’ve gone from a startup to an early-stage company,” he said.

Wild Calling, founded in 2013, distributes in all 50 states and Canada and is expanding to countries such as South Korea.

“We’re entering into the export market slowly,” Petersen said, noting that exporting food products to other countries brings diverse regulatory challenges. He added that Wild Calling has “a lot of growth opportunity in the U.S. and Canada as well.”

Wild Calling is headquartered at 11407 W. 24th St. in Greeley and employs six people locally, along with seven outside-sales people around the country.

Petersen has a long background in the pet-products industry. He founded Petersen Pet Provisions Inc. in 1996, eventually growing the distributor to $30 million in revenue. He sold the company in 2008.

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