Amid AI and tech startups, Eastseabrother proved the power of demand and trust.
Updated
January 23, 2026 10:41 AM
Cats having a jolly good time with a can of tuna. PHOTO: UNSPLASH
At a Silicon Valley pitch event crowded with AI, SaaS and deep-tech startups, the company that stood out was not selling software or algorithms. It was selling pet treats.
Eastseabrother, a premium pet food brand from South Korea, ranked first at a Plug and Play–hosted investor pitch competition in Sunnyvale. The product itself is simple: single-ingredient pet treats made from wild-caught seafood sourced from Korea’s East Sea. The company follows a principle it calls “Only What the Sea Allows”, working directly with regional fishermen while avoiding overfishing. With no additives and minimal processing, what sets Eastseabrother apart is not novelty, but control—over sourcing, supply chains and consistency.
That clarity helped the company walk away with both Best Product and Best Potential. “Investors asked detailed questions about repeat purchase rates and customer feedback, not just our technology or supply chain”, said Eunyul Kim, CEO of Eastseabrother. “That told us the market is shifting—real consumer trust now carries as much weight as a compelling tech narrative”.
What truly caught investors’ attention was not an ambitious vision of the future, but concrete evidence of traction today. Eastseabrother has already secured shelf space in specialty pet stores across California, New York and North Carolina, including an exclusive partnership with EarthWise Pet, a national specialty retail chain. At a consumer showcase at San Francisco’s Ferry Building, the brand recorded the highest on-site sales among all participating companies.
At its core, the pitch was built on simplicity: one ingredient, clear sourcing and a defined customer need. In a market saturated with complex products and abstract claims, that focus and transparency stood out.
The judges’ decision also reflects a broader shift in venture capital thinking. Not every successful startup is built on complex software or high-tech innovation. In categories like pet care—where trust, quality and transparency shape buying behavior—execution and credibility can matter more than technical sophistication.
Today, Eastseabrother has extended its reach beyond the U.S., expanding into Singapore and Hong Kong, with additional plans to grow further in North America as demand for premium pet food rises. And the broader takeaway from this pitch is not that consumer brands are overtaking tech startups. It is that investors are increasingly focused on fundamentals: who is buying, why they are returning and whether the business can sustain itself beyond the pitch deck.
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As industrial drone adoption grows, startups are finding bigger opportunities in infrastructure, inspections and field operations.
Updated
May 25, 2026 3:21 PM
An oil pump on a field. PHOTO: UNSPLASH
As drone adoption grows across industrial sectors, more startups are moving beyond hardware sales and into service-based business models. Instead of simply selling drones, companies are increasingly trying to build recurring revenue through inspection, mapping and infrastructure-monitoring services. That shift is shaping ZenaTech’s latest expansion strategy.
ZenaTech is a Vancouver-based startup that develops AI drone and Drone as a Service (DaaS) technologies. The company has signed an offer to acquire an Alberta-based land surveying and geomatics business operating across Western Canada. If completed, the deal would mark ZenaTech’s first land surveying acquisition in Canada and its first major push into the oil and gas sector.
The move gives the startup something more valuable than just another acquisition target. It provides direct access to an industry where drones are already becoming part of everyday operations.
The Alberta surveying company works with oil and gas producers across Alberta, Eastern British Columbia and Saskatchewan. Its services include land surveying, geomatics, mapping and environmental support for infrastructure and energy development projects.
According to ZenaTech, drones are already used in roughly 80 percent of the target company’s existing projects. That matters because it reduces the operational gap between traditional surveying work and AI-powered automation.
Rather than introducing drones into a completely manual workflow, ZenaTech is entering a business where drone-based data collection is already established. The startup says it plans to build on that foundation by integrating more AI-powered capabilities across surveying, mapping, inspections and infrastructure monitoring.
Shaun Passley, Ph.D., CEO of ZenaTech, said: "This proposed acquisition represents an important strategic expansion of our Drone as a Service business into Canada’s oil and gas sector, one of the most significant energy markets in North America. This company brings an established commercial customer base, strong regional expertise, and extensive experience supporting surveying and geomatics projects including for some large producers. We believe there is a significant opportunity to further enhance these services through AI-powered drone technology for surveying, mapping, inspections, and infrastructure monitoring applications, enabling us to establish a core expertise that we can bring to this fast-growing global industry."
The timing is also significant. ZenaTech pointed to estimates showing the global oil and gas drone inspection services market is currently valued at around US$ 2.3 billion and projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of roughly 28.5 percent.
Much of that growth is being driven by energy companies looking for faster ways to inspect infrastructure, monitor remote sites and reduce manual field operations.
ZenaTech’s broader strategy centers around building a global DaaS network through acquisitions. Instead of creating local operations from scratch, the startup is acquiring existing service businesses with established customers and then layering drone automation and AI systems into those operations.
The company says its DaaS platform offers businesses and government clients subscription-based or on-demand drone services across areas such as inspections, surveying, maintenance, inventory management and precision agriculture.
The larger opportunity for startups in this space may not be drone manufacturing alone. Increasingly, the focus is shifting toward startups that can build scalable drone service networks and integrate them into industries that already rely on large-scale field operations. Oil and gas appear to be one of the next major targets for that expansion.