Meeting up with other dog owners can be tough, especially if you have a big or energetic breed like a Golden Retriever. Alion Çaçi, the founder and CEO of BALO, knows this firsthand.
Çaçi tells TFN, “I always have a problem meeting with people with dogs, because my seven-year-old Golden Retriever, Sartre, is super energetic. He wants to play all the time, and he’s a big dog, after all. Small dogs are especially in trouble, and I cannot always manage.”
That’s exactly what sparked the idea for BALO, or as Alion is already calling it, ‘Tinder for dogs.’ For now, it’s a true founder story: no revenue yet, and Alion is bootstrapping it himself.
“I’ve financed the product so far with my own capital. Because we haven’t priced a round yet, there is no ‘official’ market valuation. Internally, for investor conversations, we expect a pre-seed valuation in the low single-digit millions of euros, in line with early pet-tech products that already have a working app and a clear go-to-market plan,” says Çaçi to TFN.
The company is looking to raise €300,000 from angel investors to build, market, and launch a freemium marketplace that connects vets, sitters, and pet accessories.
“Our target amount is €300k. The plan is simple: enough capital for 18 months of execution, not so much that we lose discipline. Most will go into product development, building the matching engine, safety features, and city-level operations tools. The rest will support go-to-market efforts: local community managers in our first cities, partnerships with vets and shelters, and performance marketing once we’re confident in retention,” he adds.
But what does ‘Tinder for dogs’ actually mean?
BALO is a platform where owners can match their dogs in advance using a swipe-based interface powered by machine learning and AI. This helps owners connect before meeting up and gives insights into which pets and owners are a good fit.
The app lets dog owners connect through a swipe-based matching system and offers recommendations and messaging before they meet. “I thought, maybe I should know in advance who I am going to meet who has a dog. Our dogs match before they meet, and I also learn a bit about the owner beforehand. So, I came up with the Tinder for dogs,” Çaçi explains to TFN.
Most dog apps are just social networks for sharing dog photos or basic directories of dog walkers. BALO is designed for the moment when you’re out with your dog and want to know who’s nearby, who’s a good match, and whether it’s safe.
“The app matches dogs based on their behaviour and needs, like energy level, socialisation history, and sensitivities, instead of just owner details or breed. That’s what really matters when two dogs meet in a park,” Çaçi explains.
The prototype lets users swipe to like or message each other. It also has an AI assistant that provides personalised health tips, such as step alerts and warnings about hazards in the park.
“Location is never broadcast in a raw, continuous way. We use activity windows instead of live tracking and design the process so owners always control what they share and when. The goal is not to create a permanent map of where people live, but to provide a controlled interface for arranging short, safe interactions,” Çaçi adds.
One planned feature is in-app dog adoptions to help reduce the number of stray dogs, inspired by the street dog problem in Albania. “Besides making dog owners happy, I wanted to have a feature where you can adopt a dog through the app, so you can have fewer dogs on the streets,” Çaçi notes.
“BALO was never designed as a ‘let’s raise a huge round and see what happens’ startup. It was created to address a real social need I observed in parks: dog owners circling the same spaces, unsure if other dogs are friendly, compatible, or safe,” he shares.
So, what’s next for BALO?
The team plans to start with user testing in Vienna before expanding to other cities across Europe.
Çaçi concludes, “In 2026, the focus is depth in one place: Vienna. The task is to prove in one real city that BALO works as intended: consistently matching dogs and owners in ways that lead to repeat walks, stable routines and actual social circles, while in parallel writing the operational manual for expansion: which partners matter, when to bring in community managers, and how much active supply you need before you even think about marketing.”
Çaçi adds, “Once that playbook is tested, we move into a controlled rollout across a small cluster of European cities with similar urban dog cultures, likely within DACH and nearby markets, and deepen our work with shelters, trainers and vets so BALO becomes a bridge into the broader ecosystem.”
