JAB expands pet industry portfolio with 2 acquisitions

With two acquisitions in the pet insurance space in one week, the investment company is doubling down on building a petcare platform.

Last week, we reported that JAB was looking for a $5 billion fund to make acquisitions in the pet industry.

With these two acquisitions, they’re well on their way to gaining their intended stronger foothold in the industry, especially within their insurance portfolio. Through these acquisitions, its pet insurance portfolio now reach into the UK, EMEA, Latin America and the US.

Majority stake in UK pet insurer

The first announcement, made on Tuesday, was the majority stake acquisition of UK insurer BNP Paribas Cardif’s pet insurance division Cardif Pinnacle.

BNP Paribas Cardif will remain involved:

“We are delighted to partner with JAB to deliver a holistic suite of pet insurance and healthcare services,” said Pauline Leclerc Glorieux, CEO of BNP Paribas Cardif. “We believe the combination of BNP Paribas Cardif’s global partnership know-how and strong technical capabilities, drawn from extensive experience, with JAB’s expertise establishing world-class brands and platform building, ideally positions us to become one of the leaders in the growing pet healthcare industry.”

“Though the European pet insurance market is the world’s second largest, the quality and availability of services vary dramatically from country to country,” added JAB Insurance Partner Dirk Beeckman. “Our collaboration with BNP Paribas Cardif reflects a shared vision that pet owners in the UK and Europe deserve better, and that by combining forces we can build on BNP Paribas Cardif’s strong expertise and support to enter new markets and achieve accelerated, long-term growth.”

Full acquisition of US pet insurer

One day later, JAB announced its second acquisition in the space: Figo Pet Insurance.

“Rusty and David are true innovators in the pet insurance industry, and we are thrilled to partner with them on this fantastic acquisition,” said JAB Insurance Partner Dirk Beeckman. “Together with their teams, they will build with us a leading North American tech-driven pet insurance ecosystem.”

“The long-term mega trends in petcare, including the humanization of pets and improvement in care, are driving sustained long-term growth, and pet families are seeking solutions to ensure the highest level of care is available and affordable,” added JAB Senior Partner, David Bell. “Pet insurance is a key resource which we want to make more widely accessible, especially in the U.S. where pet insurance is underpenetrated. Our acquisitions of Figo and IHC’s pet insurance business are a significant step forward in our ambition to build a world-class petcare platform.”