Stamford’s Synchrony corrals pet health insurance company

Stamford consumer financial services company Synchrony has acquired Pets Best, a pet health insurance industry firm based in Boise, Idaho, for an undisclosed sum.

Pets Best will operate under Synchrony’s CareCredit platform, which offers health, wellness and personal care credit products that can be used to pay for a variety of health care expenses including veterinary care.

The transaction provides CareCredit with an immediate entry point into the rapidly growing pet insurance market. Overall pet spend in the United States is estimated to surpass $72 billion in 2018, according to the American Pet Products Association, and the pet health insurance market is anticipated to double by 2022 according to a report by market research publisher Packaged Facts.

Pets Best has more than 125,000 pet health insurance policies in force, more than one million claims processed, and payouts of $200 million in claims. It will continue to operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of CareCredit and be based in Boise.