U.S. homes have more pets than children.
And it’s pretty lopsided. If the American Pet Products Association is to be believed, about 70% of American households have at least one pet, while, per the last U.S. Census, only about 40% of homes include a child younger than 18.
“Pets have become family, and we’re absolutely going to continue moving in that direction,” said Emily Dong, founder and CEO of pet wellness plan provider Snout.
Dong has worked in the pet industry for more than a decade, and her previous company, Pawprint, was acquired in 2020. She founded Snout in 2023 to help solve a key problem in pet care—that vet care operates almost entirely on cash (or perhaps credit) at the time of service. In pet care, Dong said, there’s limited billing and insurance backstop.
“With inflation and private equity coming into the space, prices have gone up 40% over the last five years and people can’t afford basic things,” said Dong. “So, it’s terrifying to go to the vet. You don’t know what vaccines will cost, and you’re not going to get out of there for less than $300 to $500, even if nothing’s wrong. That’s tough for the average American.”
Snout has raised $10 million in Series A funding, led by Footwork, and $100 million in debt financing from Clear Haven Capital Management, the company has exclusively confirmed to Fortune. Other Series A backers include Bread and Butter Ventures, Pear, and Restive Ventures. For Footwork, Snout is a surprise—it’s the Mike Smith and Nikhil Basu Trivedi-founded VC firm’s first investment out of its recently-raised $225 million second fund. And there’s no AI in sight.
“There are more companies out there than investors are giving credit for, that have amazing tailwinds, growing rapidly, and don’t have an AI story,” said Trivedi, who notably led the Series A for Farmer’s Dog at his prior firm. “The whole market is obsessed with companies that have to be AI. But in an AI-native world, the sorts of experiences that make us human, the things we do with our families, maybe we have more time and money to spend on those.
Trivedi and Smith point out that pet insurance in the U.S. still remains a shockingly underpenetrated market (less than 3% of U.S. pets are insured, per the Insurance Information Institute). And that human wellness trends, in full swing with the rise of wearables giants and longevity upstarts, will also inform what’s next. Smith, a former Walmart and StitchFix executive, believes that, “there will be a similar trend of trying to understand how your pet is doing, really taking care of them,” said Smith.
Snout, to this end, focuses on covering preventative care, and effectively turns vet bills into memberships. Costs vary based on plan, but on average customers are paying $65 a month for Snout to help take care of vet costs upfront. Over time, customers pay Snout back. That’s why Snout raised both debt and equity. The idea: Debt funds that no-interest, no-credit-check financing marketplace, while equity funds company operations.
“We’re flooding the system with capital,” said Dong. “It’s not that people don’t want to pay for vet care. Someone may not be able to pay $500 that day, but they can pay it back over time. The debt vehicle is to bring capital into the space in a way we haven’t seen before.”
In 2025, Dong lost her own dog, Bowser, a 14-pound Yorkie. For her, it reinforced the importance of vet visits and early detection (a way in which pet healthcare echoes human healthcare). But, as anyone who’s lost their pet knows, it was for some time a struggle.
“Nikhil and I started saying: When we IPO, we’ll put Bowser up in Times Square,” she said. “And I was back in.”
