The private equity firm Warburg Pincus has entered the animal health sector through the acquisition of Petplan, one of the nation’s largest pet health insurance companies. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The acquisition of Philadelphia-based Petplan will support the company’s continued growth, Petplan CEO Paul Guyardo said.
“This investment is a game changer for Petplan,” Guyardo said. “It enables us to catapult the product innovation and customer experience that our company was founded upon and introduce the very best pet health insurance to millions of pet parents in North America.”
Petplan has more than 200,000 active subscribers across the United States and Canada. The market research firm Packaged Facts in 2018 ranked Petplan the fifth-largest pet insurer by market share in the United States after Nationwide, Trupanion, Healthy Paws and Crum & Forster.
Guyardo will remain at Petplan and work with newly named board chairman John Giannuzzi, the co-founder and managing general partner of another private equity firm, Sherbrooke Capital.
“We are excited to partner with Paul and his management team to help drive the company’s next phase of growth,” said Jeff Stein, managing director at Warburg Pincus.
“As a long-term investor in the insurance sector, we see incredible potential in Petplan given its leading position in an underpenetrated and growing market.”
Petplan is the third pet insurer taken over in the past seven months. The financial services company Synchrony purchased Pets Best in March 2019 and NSM Insurance Group bought Embrace Pet Insurance one month later.
Warburg Pincus’ only other pet-related asset is the Brazilian pet store chain Petz.