From Unicorn to a Credit Card That Fixes Pet Insurance

Issue #283

December 22nd, 2025

Quick Hits:

🇳🇱 The Nutriment Company snaps up Dutch treat maker Antos in ninth deal of 2025

🏥 ProSites Inc. (under the LifeLearn brand) has acquired GeniusVets

🫢 The pet industry’s predatory lender

🇨🇦 Freedom Pet Supplies expands nationwide with Trueman Distribution Acquisition

😢 Help raise money for this puppy that was found stuffed in a box

⬆️ Monroe Capital supports growth of Alpine Investors’ Antelope Pet

🧬 Pet DNA testing market size & outlook, 2026-2034

🩺 The contested rise and scope of the mid-level veterinary positions

 🔴 Red Bank Veterinary Hospital introduces advanced PET/CT imaging for early cancer detection in pets

🍏 A New York City pet influencer is helping shelter dogs find homes by taking them on public adventures in his backpack

Happy holidays, everyone 👋

We’re taking the rest of the week off and will be back next Monday with a fun year-end recap. We already have some great stories, interviews, deep dives, podcasts, and a few surprises lined up as we head into 2026.

Thank you to everyone who joined us this year, and to those who’ve been with us from the very beginning. We genuinely appreciate you being part of this community.

Pet insurance adoption in the U.S. has lagged for years—not because pet parents don’t care, but because the system is expensive, confusing, and disconnected from real-life vet visits. In this interview, founder Rafael Lopez of Nibbles explains how lessons from scaling ZenBusiness into a unicorn are now shaping a radically different model: a credit card with built-in, free pet insurance designed to work at the exact moment care happens.

We discussed:

• A genuinely new business model: Nibbles isn’t “insurance with rewards”—it’s a fintech platform where payments, claims, underwriting, and vet data are fully integrated.

• Hard-won operator insight: The founder breaks down what actually transfers from building a $1B+ company - customer trust, compliance discipline, and unit economics—and what doesn’t.

• A glimpse at the future of pet care economics: From AI-driven medical data to automatic claims at checkout, this conversation shows how pet insurance could finally scale beyond affluent households.

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