Warburg injects $170m in Bond Vet, looking to disrupt old-school vet care market

Warburg Pincus injected $170 million into Bond Vet, an innovative startup looking to modernize the traditional veterinary care market with a model not unlike a CityMD for pets.

The all-equity transaction simultaneously signed and closed last week, concluding a competitive Lincoln International-run process, sources familiar with the matter said. 

Warburg’s growth investment is intended to fuel significant multi-market expansion at Bond Vet. Growth isn’t limited to New York City, where today it encompasses six locations in addition to one clinic on Long Island. The capital will largely be used to execute a de novo growth strategy, but it will also invest in technology, equipment, training and culture to enable the best veterinarian, pet parent and pet experience.

Bond Vet clinics provide vet care services ranging from wellness checkups and annual exams to urgent care such as wound treatment, GI issues and mass removals. In this sense, Bond Vet is looking to define a new category in the rapidly growing veterinary care industry that fits somewhere between a traditional hospital or ER and the primary care equivalent for pets. 

Pet owners and their pets can access Bond Vet both in-person and virtually via a mobile app, with the option to schedule affordable same-day appointments or simply walk into a clinic, as well as address pet symptoms via its telehealth offering. Catering to pet parents, Bond Vet clinics also emphasize a clean and modern clinic design. 

Led by co-founder and chief veterinary officer Zay Satchu, Bond Vet has treated more than 40,000 pets in the NYC area since its founding in June 2019. 

With the transaction, Warburg is now the largest investor in Bond Vet. Talisman Partners in December 2020 led a $17 million Series A investment in Bond Vet. 

Warburg is poised to leverage its deep knowledge and experience scaling multi-site healthcare businesses. In mid-2019, it combined the New York metro area’s dominant urgent care chain, CityMD, with one of the largest independent multi-specialty groups in the country, Summit Medical Group. The marriage of the companies created a combined company set to approach $200 million in EBITDA on a pro forma basis, a source told PE Hub in mid-2019. 

In recent investments, the prolific healthcare technology investor earlier this year injected around $500 million into GHX, whose supply-chain management technology helps healthcare constituents analyze and manage their spending, sources familiar with the matter told PE Hub in June. Temasek, an investment company owned by the Singapore government, remained GHX’s controlling investor and did not selling any of its stake, they said. 

Warburg in May invested $110 million in Aetion, which delivers real-world evidence for the manufacturers, purchasers, and regulators of medical treatments and technologies.