What is the latest update in the Pet Tech market?

The Pet Tech market just had a busy Q1 2026, with two major acquisitions, new insurance partnerships, and AI tools entering everyday veterinary workflows.

We constantly update this blog post so you always have the freshest picture of what is happening in the Pet Tech market.

The Pet Tech market reached $15 billion in 2026, yet only 1 in 250 dog owners worldwide uses a GPS tracker, leaving massive room for growth.

And if you want to better understand this new industry, you can download our pitch covering the Pet Tech market.

Summary table of the most important updates in the Pet Tech market

We define the Pet Tech market as digital products and services that use software or connected devices to help people care for, monitor, train, and keep their pets healthy and safe.

We include smart pet devices (such as trackers, feeders, cameras and health wearables), their companion apps and cloud services, tele-vet and digital health tools, and standalone apps for training, behavior, and daily pet management.

We exclude basic pet food, toys and accessories, general online pet retail, and traditional offline pet services whose core offer does not rely on digital technology.

You can also get all the latest market news for the month here.

News	Category	Date	Source
Tractive agreed to sell to Bending Spoons in pet tech's biggest strategic deal this quarter	M&A	March 25, 2026	Tractive
Instinct bought ScribbleVet to fuse AI note-taking with core vet software	M&A	January 16, 2026	Instinct Science
South Carolina gave tele-vet a real legal framework with a new signed law	Regulations & Policies	March 9, 2026	SC State House
Tractive cracked insurance reimbursement with Germany's Uelzener insurer	Partnerships	March 17, 2026	Tractive
Wagmo and Fi turned employer benefits into a sales channel for pet trackers	Partnerships	February 24, 2026	BusinessWire
Tractive and Spot bundled insurance with connected pet hardware	Partnerships	February 6, 2026	Tractive
MOVA Pets raised a Series A around "digital twins" for pets	Fundraisings	February 9, 2026	FinancialContent
PETKIT pushed pet care from automation toward daily health signals at CES 2026	Product launches	January 2, 2026	PR Newswire
uCloudlink launched PetPhone and PetCam to make pets remotely reachable	Product launches	January 6, 2026	uCloudlink
VIN added AI Mode to search across its huge vet knowledge base	New tech and infrastructure	February 18, 2026	PR Newswire
Vetology published full AI performance data for 89+ imaging classifiers	Breakthrough	January 19, 2026	PR Newswire
CoVet said 2026 will reward practical AI in vet clinics, not hype	Opinions	March 4, 2026	PR Newswire

How is the Pet Tech market doing now?

How do we define the Pet Tech market?

We define the Pet Tech market as digital products and services that use software or connected devices to help people care for, monitor, train, and keep their pets healthy and safe.

We include smart pet devices (such as trackers, feeders, cameras and health wearables), their companion apps and cloud services, tele-vet and digital health tools, and standalone apps for training, behavior, and daily pet management.

We exclude basic pet food, toys and accessories, general online pet retail, and traditional offline pet services whose core offer does not rely on digital technology.

This is also the definition we use in our report covering the Pet Tech market.

How big is the Pet Tech market in 2026?

Based on multiple research firms and our own bottom-up calculations, the Pet Tech market reached approximately $15 billion in 2026, sitting between the conservative $13 billion and the optimistic $18 billion estimates.

This is not a random guess, if you want to know how we have come up with this estimate, you can read our Pet Tech market size analysis here.

To put it in perspective, the Pet Tech market is roughly the same size as the global pet insurance market at $12 billion and somewhat smaller than the smart home security market at $18 billion.

The Pet Tech market scores 35 out of 100 on maturity (still early), 55 out of 100 on competitiveness (moderate and heating up), and 70 out of 100 on fragmentation (highly spread across categories and regions, with no single company controlling more than 15%).

How fast will the Pet Tech market grow in the future?

After adjusting for different definitions across research firms, the Pet Tech market is expected to grow at about 14.5% per year, which is a realistic and well-supported estimate.

At that pace, the Pet Tech market should reach around $26 billion by 2030 and roughly $51 billion by 2036, more than tripling its current size in ten years.

That growth trajectory is similar to smart home devices (12% to 15% per year), wearable fitness products (15% to 20% per year), and the pet insurance industry (14% to 16% per year).

What does current funding activity look like in the Pet Tech market?

Our team, who continually updates our Pet Tech market pitch deck, is keeping a close eye on the market and tracking key signals.

One of those signals is fundraising activity across startups. Each month, we refresh this page with a list of startups of the Pet Tech market that have raised funding, and we also publish a quarterly analysis here.

Is funding momentum accelerating or cooling in the Pet Tech market these days?

Pet Tech market funding dropped to $500 million in 2024, creating a valuation reset, and Q1 2026 continued to reflect a cautious funding environment where only the strongest companies attracted capital.

Compared to the same period a year ago, the Pet Tech market saw fewer but more targeted deals, as investors shifted away from broad bets toward startups with clear subscription revenue and proven retention.

Average deal sizes in the Pet Tech market remain modest, with most rounds going to early-stage companies building software layers on top of connected devices, while large late-stage rounds remained rare in Q1 2026.

Which categories and business models are attracting capital in the Pet Tech market?

These categories and business models of the Pet Tech market are receiving important fundraising currently:

• AI-driven pet health platforms like MOVA Pets raised a Series A to build "digital twins" for pets, showing investor appetite for data-layer businesses in the Pet Tech market.
• Veterinary workflow software attracted M&A capital, with Instinct acquiring ScribbleVet to combine AI scribing with practice management, a sign that consolidation is replacing fresh funding in this Pet Tech market category.
• Subscription-based GPS tracking continues to prove its model, with Tractive's €100 million ARR making it the clearest proof point for recurring-revenue Pet Tech market businesses.

The pattern is clear: investors in the Pet Tech market now favor startups that combine hardware data with a strong software or subscription layer over pure device makers.

Who's writing the most checks in the Pet Tech market?

These investors are being very active when it comes to fundraising in the Pet Tech market:

• Bending Spoons, a major European software company, made the quarter's biggest move by agreeing to acquire Tractive, bringing serious tech infrastructure to the Pet Tech market.
• Early-stage venture firms continued backing AI-focused Pet Tech market startups like MOVA Pets, betting on the thesis that connected device data can power recurring software businesses.
• Strategic acquirers like Instinct Science acted as both operators and investors by buying ScribbleVet, showing that well-funded Pet Tech market incumbents are consolidating through M&A rather than waiting for competitors to grow.

Q1 2026 was more about strategic buyers than traditional VCs, which suggests the Pet Tech market is entering a phase where incumbents shape the landscape as much as investors do.

Any big acquisitions or IPOs in the last three months in the Pet Tech market?

These are the big acquisitions and IPOs that happened recently in the Pet Tech market:

• Tractive agreed to be acquired by Bending Spoons on March 25, 2026, in what was the biggest strategic deal of the quarter in the Pet Tech market, expected to close in Q2 2026.
• Instinct Science acquired ScribbleVet on January 16, 2026, combining AI-powered note-taking with veterinary practice management software to build a more complete Pet Tech market platform.

Two acquisitions in one quarter is a strong signal that the Pet Tech market is consolidating, with larger players buying specialized AI tools to build all-in-one platforms.

How are companies in the Pet Tech market performing overall?

We are watching this market everyday, because we need to constantly update our pitch deck. Here is a couple of things we have noticed.

Are there any standout success metrics or financial results in the Pet Tech market?

A few companies shared impressive numbers this quarter in the Pet Tech market:

• Tractive confirmed that millions of pet parents rely on its products, and the company had previously reported reaching €100 million in annual recurring revenue with 1.3 million subscribers.
• Instinct Science said it serves more than 360,000 veterinary professionals worldwide, showing real scale in the vet software side of the Pet Tech market.
• VIN reported serving over 115,000 veterinary colleagues globally, making its new AI Mode launch meaningful in terms of potential reach across the Pet Tech market.

The standout theme is scale: the biggest Pet Tech market players are no longer scrappy startups but platforms serving hundreds of thousands (or millions) of users.

Have there been any major partnerships in the Pet Tech market?

Q1 2026 saw several meaningful partnerships in the Pet Tech market, especially around insurance:

• Tractive partnered with Uelzener, a major German pet insurer, so eligible customers can now get their Tractive subscription costs reimbursed once per year, moving Pet Tech market products closer to the healthcare budget.
• Wagmo partnered with Fi to offer GPS tracking devices through employer benefits, opening a new B2B2C distribution channel for the Pet Tech market.
• Tractive partnered with Spot Pet Insurance to give eligible Spot customers a complimentary Tractive device, bundling insurance and connected hardware in the Pet Tech market.

Three insurance-related partnerships in a single quarter is a clear sign that the Pet Tech market is moving from the "gadget" category into the "preventive care" category.

Have there been any notable technology or infrastructure breakthroughs in the Pet Tech market?

A few technology moves stood out this quarter in the Pet Tech market:

• VIN launched AI Mode for its search platform, which summarizes answers using only VIN's own vet-reviewed content instead of pulling from the open internet, bringing curated AI into daily veterinary workflows.
• Vetology publicly released detailed performance metrics for 89+ imaging classifiers across 300,000 test cases, becoming the first veterinary imaging AI company to do so in the Pet Tech market.
• PETKIT introduced a full AI ecosystem at CES 2026 where connected fountains, feeders, and litter boxes feed the same pet health dashboard, pushing the Pet Tech market from single devices to multi-device platforms.

The common thread is trust and depth: Pet Tech market companies are now competing on data quality, transparency, and system-level thinking rather than just adding another sensor.

Have any companies restructured or shifted pricing or business model in the Pet Tech market?

We did not spot any major restructurings or pricing shifts during Q1 2026 in the Pet Tech market.

Are there any other notable wins or successes in the Pet Tech market?

One product launch stood out as a creative bet in the Pet Tech market:

• uCloudlink launched the PetPogo ecosystem at CES 2026, featuring PetPhone and PetCam, which position themselves as wearable communication devices for pets rather than just trackers, attempting to open a new "remote interaction" category in the Pet Tech market.

Whether consumers pay for two-way pet communication remains to be seen, but uCloudlink's launch shows the Pet Tech market is still generating genuinely new product ideas.

What is the overall sentiment in the Pet Tech market right now?

Are there any notable recent opinion pieces, thought leadership about the Pet Tech market?

One opinion piece caught our attention this quarter in the Pet Tech market:

• CoVet's in-house medical team published its 2026 predictions, arguing that veterinary clinics want AI that cuts admin work and helps real workflows right now, not vague future promises about what Pet Tech market AI might do someday.

CoVet's take matches what the quarter's deals and product launches also show: the Pet Tech market is rewarding practical tools that save time today over ambitious demos that might work tomorrow.

Are there any interesting and recent market research reports about the Pet Tech market?

We did not come across any standout market research reports published during Q1 2026 specifically about the Pet Tech market beyond the ongoing estimates from the usual research firms.

Have there been any regulatory changes, policy updates, or new compliance requirements in the Pet Tech market?

One regulatory change happened this quarter that matters for the Pet Tech market:

• South Carolina's governor signed a new law defining telehealth and telemedicine for veterinary services on March 9, 2026, giving tele-vet companies in the Pet Tech market a clear legal framework to operate in the state.

State-by-state legal clarity is one of the biggest unlocks for tele-vet growth in the Pet Tech market, and each new law like this one makes the business case stronger for remote pet health platforms.

Who is the author of this content?

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