Petrics, a Wilmington-based pet technology company, has been selected as a CES 2018 Innovation Awards Honoree, according to a news release from the company.

The company was selected as an honoree in both the Smart Home and Tech for a Better World product categories, officials said. Petrics will exhibit at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), a major industry trade show that runs Jan. 9-12 in Las Vegas.

Petrics recently raised over $650,000 in a private equity offering.

Products entered in the CES Innovation Awards are judged by a panel of independent industrial designers, independent engineers and members of the trade media to honor design and engineering in cutting-edge consumer electronics products across 28 product categories, officials said.

Petrics has created a smart pet bed and pet health ecosystem and will soon start opening up preorders through an Indiegogo campaign of its pet bed, which tracks weight and offers personalized climate control and health monitoring for pets.

"Smart Home was a big one for us because we knew it was going to be very competitive last year as well as last year. Right now smart home is a very big space," Ed Hall, CEO of Petrics, said Thursday about being included in that category. "But then we also got the Tech for a Better World honoree, which really meant a lot for us because that's typically innovation that's recognized that can make a really good positive impact in the world.

"And for us, that's exactly what we want to do in the pet industry. We want to help pet owners -- and pets -- essentially be able to manage their health better so they can live longer lives," added Hall, who started the company in 2015. 

Hall had developed an app for pet owners to access nutrition information tailored to their pet. Petrics expanded to include its smart pet bed. The bed will be officially displayed in January at CES, officials said. The app will be made available for download before the Nov. 30 campaign. 

"What's really exciting for us is that we are the world's first smart pet bed," Hall said. "We got the patent for it and approved. So it's a big opportunity for us to be the first in the market for this."

Petrics officials said the new products -- the bed and companion collar activity tracker -- can extend pets' lives by tracking weight, rest periods and activity levels.

The system can be controlled with a Petrics mobile app and works with existing smart home technology.

“Our No. 1 goal is to help pets live longer,” Hall said in a news release. “Our system helps pet parents care for their furry best friends by creating a connected ecosystem that tracks, analyzes and recommends optimal health solutions unique to each pet and ultimately, helps save lives through early detection and intervention.”

The company plans to show prototypes of its new products at an event 4-8 p.m., Nov. 30 at Ironclad Brewery, 115 N. Second St.

"We have been working on it for years," Hall said about the startup. "And so now it's finally about to happen so we really wanted to ... be part of the local pet community.

"Between this and CES, these are going to be really important events for us. And we want people in the local community to definitely know us."

The company has three full-time employees, including Hall and Johnson, and is currently based at tekMountain. There are about 14 other subcontractors and partners are working on the company's product at any given time, he added.

"You know we have a lot of good achievements for startups in our local economy here," he said. "We want to become a success story for Wilmington and help inspire and encourage others that want to be startups and build businesses and teams here locally and not move their businesses away."