Pet insurance: which startup is ahead? Last updated: 31 July 2026 In our Pet Tech market deck , you will find everything you need to understand the market SUMMARY Spot is the pet insurance startup leader today. It has the largest disclosed customer base, the fastest growth at meaningful scale, the broadest distribution network and enough claims volume to show that the operation is real. Its lead is mostly a scale story. Spot has passed one million customers, roughly four times Lassie’s reported 250,000 pets and more than 16 times the latest disclosed figure from Dalma. ManyPets is still the strongest insurer we can inspect properly. Its £232 million premium book, 70% UK loss ratio and first annual profit provide harder evidence of business quality than Spot’s privately held operating figures. Lassie is the most credible challenger, not because it has raised the most money, but because its customer growth, European expansion, app engagement and claims automation are moving together. The weak spot is that most of those numbers still come from the company or its investors. The wider market is helping every contender, but pricing is doing part of the work. North American premiums grew faster than insured-pet counts, implying roughly 6% more premium collected per pet before changes in coverage mix. Spot’s distribution advantage may be harder to copy than its policy design. AAA, Sam’s Club and employer channels place the product inside existing customer relationships instead of forcing Spot to win every buyer through search advertising. Claims performance separates the serious operators from the polished apps. Spot processes more than 16,000 claims a month in a little over three days on average, ManyPets handled 134,000 claims through its Vet Portal, and Lassie says most German claims can now be completed automatically in minutes. Napo looks unusually capital-efficient. It reached roughly £30 million in annual premiums on about £30 million of disclosed funding, although premium volume is not the same thing as revenue or profit. Product differentiation is real but still secondary to insurance execution. Lassie’s prevention model creates unusually frequent engagement, Napo offers strong UK coverage and direct vet payment, and Spot has broad U.S. benefits, but none of those features compensates for weak pricing or claims control. The ranking is clear enough: Spot leads overall, ManyPets has the best proven insurance economics, and Lassie has the strongest chance of changing the order. Spot’s lack of financial transparency remains the main reason the lead is convincing rather than unassailable. Which pet insurance startups are actually in the race? The real pet insurance startup field currently contains seven serious names: Spot, ManyPets, Lassie, Napo, Dalma, Wagmo and Kanguro. We include startup-built companies that sell or distribute their own pet insurance product and have shown real commercial activity. Spot remains in the comparison even though Independence Pet Holdings acquired a majority interest in 2024. Its brand, product and customer-growth engine were built as a startup. ManyPets has also grown beyond the usual startup stage, but it remains one of the companies that shaped modern digital pet insurance. We exclude public companies such as Trupanion and Lemonade, traditional insurers such as MetLife and Nationwide, and older brands such as Pets Best. Comparison websites such as Pawlicy Advisor belong to another category. Pumpkin, Figo and Embrace are also outside the core ranking because larger insurance groups now control them. Private-company disclosure remains uneven. ManyPets publishes detailed financial accounts, while Spot does not disclose its funding, loss ratio or profit. Lassie has released fresh customer and revenue figures, but those numbers come from the company. Napo, Dalma, Wagmo and Kanguro disclose only parts of their performance. Startup What it does Cumulative funding Spot U.S. digital pet insurance sold directly, through employers and through large partners Not publicly disclosed; majority interest acquired in 2024 ManyPets Digital pet insurer now focused mainly on the UK About 120 million Napo UK digital lifetime pet insurance provider About £30 million Dalma App-based pet insurer operating in France and Germany More than €50 million Wagmo U.S. pet insurance, wellness plans and employee benefits About 6.2 billion in gross written premiums. Insured pets increased 12.4%, while premiums rose 19.4%. That implies an increase of roughly 6% in premium collected per pet before changes in coverage mix. Pet insurance is growing quickly, but it remains far from mature. Only 4.27% of U.S. dogs and cats currently have coverage. The market also contains around 30 insurance companies and more than 20 additional white-label or co-branded products. Spot has pulled ahead within that crowded field. It has crossed one million customers, while Lassie reports around 250,000 pets. ManyPets remains financially larger than Lassie, with £232 million in gross written premiums and its first annual profit, but it has stopped selling new U.S. policies and is no longer growing at Spot’s pace. The market now has one commercial leader, two substantial challengers and a second group of smaller specialists. Spot leads overall, ManyPets has the strongest published insurance accounts, and Lassie is moving fastest in Europe. If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest Pet Tech market report . This market map, featured in our Pet Tech market deck , highlights top companies and startups in the pet tech market Who insures the most pets today? Spot currently covers more pets than any other startup-born challenger, and the gap is large enough to shape the whole ranking. Spot has passed one million customers in the United States. Lassie now reports around 250,000 insured pets across Sweden, Germany and France. Spot is therefore roughly four times larger by customer count. Napo’s last firm disclosure showed 60,000 covered pets, although later company descriptions said it was approaching 100,000. Dalma also reported around 60,000 pets after starting with just over 20,000 in 2022. Spot’s disclosed customer base is more than 16 times Dalma’s latest figure. ManyPets is harder to place. It says it has sold nearly 800,000 new policies since 2017, but cumulative policy sales do not reveal how many customers remain active today. Its premium volume shows that it is still one of the largest companies in the group, yet we cannot compare its current policy count cleanly. Customer numbers alone do not decide the ranking. They do show that Spot has reached a different size class from Napo, Dalma, Wagmo and Kanguro. Who has built the healthiest pet insurance business? ManyPets has built the healthiest insurance business we can inspect properly, with a large premium book, better claims costs and its first full-year profit. Its latest annual report showed £232 million in gross written premiums and £62 million in revenue. The group earned a £6.25 million net profit after losing £33 million the previous year, an improvement of more than £39 million in twelve months. The UK loss ratio fell from 78% to 70%. In simple terms, claims consumed 70 pence of every premium pound before operating expenses, down from 78 pence. An eight-point improvement across a business of this size can transform the whole company. ManyPets achieved the turnaround through higher prices, tighter risk selection, claims automation and a move onto its own insurance platform. It also narrowed the business. Group premiums fell 3% as the company wound down its U.S. operation, while UK premiums remained broadly stable at £218 million. ManyPets became a better insurer by abandoning part of its earlier international growth plan. Spot is adding customers much faster, but its loss ratio, retention and profit remain private. Until Spot shares those figures, ManyPets deserves first place for financial health. If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest Pet Tech market report . As this chart shows, and as featured in our Pet Tech market deck , search interest in pet cameras has risen sharply Which pet insurance startup is growing fastest right now? Spot is growing fastest at serious scale, while Kanguro has posted the biggest recent percentage increase from a much smaller starting point. Spot ranked 233rd on the Inc. 5000 after reporting 1,656% revenue growth over three years. Revenue over that period became roughly 17.6 times larger. The company also estimated that it generated around 22% of all newly insured U.S. pets during 2024, far above its share of the total market at the start of that period. Kanguro nearly doubled the premium written on its behalf by Cimarron Insurance Company. The figure rose from 8.6 million in 2025, an increase of about 95%. Impressive, yes, although its entire premium book remains small beside the leading companies. Dalma grew from slightly more than 20,000 pets in 2022 to around 60,000 in 2025. Tripling in three years works out to approximately 44% annual growth. Napo also expanded quickly, but its latest public numbers do not provide a clean recent growth rate. Lassie has the strongest European growth story. It now reports more than €84 million in annual recurring revenue across three countries, following an earlier period when it crossed €50 million in gross written premiums in less than four years. ManyPets sits at the other end of the comparison. Its financial performance improved dramatically, but its premium volume is currently stable rather than accelerating. Who got the most real business from the money raised? Napo appears to have used venture funding most efficiently among the companies with public numbers, while Spot has created the most demand overall. Napo has raised about £30 million and had already reached roughly £30 million in annual premiums. It produced around one pound of yearly premium volume for every pound of disclosed funding, although premiums are not revenue or profit. It also reached that point without an expensive retreat from several international markets. Lassie has raised around 75 million Series C. Its reported annual recurring revenue has now moved above €84 million. That is a strong conversion of capital into business, especially because Lassie has already entered three different insurance markets. Dalma has raised more than €50 million and covers around 60,000 pets. The company has created a real French and German customer base, but its published scale remains well below Lassie’s despite their funding totals being closer than their customer counts. ManyPets is the most-funded company by far. Its latest premium book is large and profitable, yet roughly 450 million since launch. Lassie says its system now handles 60% of German claims from start to finish in around six minutes. For straightforward treatments, customers upload a photograph of the bill and can receive a near-instant decision. The speed is impressive, although the company has not published the number of claims behind that percentage. ManyPets provides a different kind of convenience. Its Vet Portal handled 134,000 claims during the latest financial year, allowing veterinary practices to deal directly with the insurer. Around 45% of claims can now be handled automatically, and 2,850 veterinary practices use the portal. Napo says it accepts around 95% of claims and closes most within five days. That is a good customer promise, though its public reporting gives less detail on total claims volume. Spot wins on proven speed at scale. Lassie could eventually pass it if the six-minute German process works across more countries and more complicated claims. This chart, included in our Pet Tech market deck , looks at Tractive’s strategy in pet tech Which pet insurance startup has the best product? No single pet insurance product wins everywhere because Spot, ManyPets, Napo and Lassie solve different customer problems. Spot offers one of the broadest standard U.S. policies. Coverage can include examination fees, behavioral treatment, alternative therapies, prescription food and end-of-life expenses. Customers can choose unlimited annual coverage, and some curable pre-existing conditions become eligible after 180 symptom-free days. Its main weakness is payment. Customers usually pay the veterinarian first and wait for reimbursement. Pets Best and ASPCA, which sit outside this startup ranking, offer more developed direct-payment options. ManyPets offers up to £20,000 of annual UK coverage through its Complete Care policy. It also has a plan for certain pre-existing conditions. Napo offers limits of up to £16,000, includes dental illness and behavioral support, and can pay participating veterinary practices directly. Lassie stands apart through prevention. Its app contains more than 200 courses and guides, with rewards or insurance discounts for completing activities. Dalma concentrates on a simple mobile experience, unlimited veterinary advice and quick reimbursements in France and Germany. Startup Strongest product advantage Main drawback Spot Broad U.S. coverage and an unlimited annual-limit option Customers usually pay the vet first ManyPets Up to £20,000 of annual UK cover and options for some pre-existing conditions Mainly concentrated in the UK Napo Dental care, behavioral support and direct vet payment Available only in the UK Lassie Prevention courses, rewards and frequent app use Prevention savings remain unproven Dalma Simple app and unlimited veterinary advice Lower disclosed scale and country-specific terms Is Lassie’s prevention model actually an advantage? Lassie has created a genuine engagement advantage, although it still needs to prove that prevention improves the underlying insurance business. Most insurance apps give customers little reason to return until something goes wrong. Lassie encourages owners to log activity, follow health guidance, complete courses and earn rewards. The company reports that 25% of customers use the app daily, compared with an industry benchmark of 8% to 9%. Even allowing for company-reported definitions, a usage gap of nearly three times is hard to dismiss. Frequent engagement can make customers less likely to leave, create richer information about pets and give Lassie more opportunities to sell other services. The prevention model also supports its partnerships. Tractive can connect activity data with rewards, while Lidl Plus can bring lower-priced insurance to a mass-market audience. Those relationships feel more natural around an active health program than around a basic reimbursement policy. The missing evidence is financial. Lassie has not published separate retention rates for active users, a reduction in claims among customers completing courses or a group loss ratio. The app has clearly changed customer behavior. We still cannot say how much money that behavior saves. If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest Pet Tech market report . This chart, included in our Pet Tech market deck , shows annual funding in pet tech startups Who gives pet owners the best value today? Spot currently offers the strongest broad value in the United States, while Napo and ManyPets provide deeper high-limit coverage in the UK. A recent independent comparison placed Spot’s average cat policy at about $17 per month, the lowest among the providers tested. Its standard coverage also includes benefits that some rivals place behind add-ons, including examination fees, behavioral treatment and alternative therapies. The exact quote will change with the pet’s breed, age, location, deductible and coverage limit. Spot becomes less price-competitive when customers choose unlimited coverage, but its cheaper plans still include a wide range of treatments. Napo and ManyPets compete differently. Their highest UK limits reach £16,000 and £20,000 respectively. Customers facing expensive surgery or long-term illness may receive more useful protection from these plans even when the monthly price is higher. Dalma advertises entry prices from around €15.99 per month in Germany and promotes policies without deductibles in France. Those offers are attractive, though comparing a starting price with a full policy can be misleading. The latest industry data also shows why value is becoming harder to defend. Premiums grew 19.4% while insured-pet counts increased 12.4%, implying roughly 6% more premium per pet. Customers need clearer proof that price increases bring broader coverage, faster service or less money paid upfront. Who can keep scaling without service falling apart? ManyPets has the strongest proof that it can control a large insurance book, while Spot
Pet insurance: which startup is ahead?
NewMarketPitch Team