Trupanion plans to acquire PetExpert
Pet insurance company Trupanion is planning to acquire PetExpert , an online pet insurance provider from the Czech Republic. PetExpert has “tens of thousands of policies,” according to the company.
There are an estimated 1,300 veterinary hospitals in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and over 95% of these have connectivity to the PetExpert platform – this bit is similar to how Trupanion operates in the US.
The news comes after Trupanion acquired Smart Paws , which operates in Germany and Switzerland, two months ago. Trupanion expects additional synergies from its recently completed acquisition of Smart Paws, including its existing relationships with the veterinary community.
“We are excited to bring together our like-minded businesses, allowing us to collectively work to eliminate the financially burdensome reimbursement model in Europe and enable pet owners and veterinarians to focus on quality of care over financial considerations. PetExpert swiftly broadens our European footprint into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and we expect Belgium and Poland to follow in the coming months.” – Simon Wheeler, EVP of International at Trupanion.
“We are thrilled to be joining the Trupanion team. We share the same entrepreneurial culture and passion to help as many pet parents as possible provide the very best veterinary medical care for their pets. At the helm of PetExpert, Jan and I look forward to accelerating Trupanion’s expansion across Europe and beyond.” – Derek Cummins, CEO & co-Founder with Jan Moravec, co-Founder & CTO of PetExpert.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2022 and no additional terms were disclosed.
Bottom Line: By integrating pet insurance into US veterinary practices, Trupanion has reached its current status. Although the claims process is connected and ensures that Trupanion pays vets directly, the sales approach was/is an affinity-type play (and that’s the problem). On the other hand, Trupanion didn’t get to where it is today by focusing on CX, web presence, and Google Search (see the problem). As a result, the pet insurance website owned by Nationwide saw significantly more internet visitors in the past 11 out of the last 12 months, according to statistics from Similarweb.
