“Can a veterinary distributor become the operating and financial platform for independent and corporate vet practices?”
Covetrus was formed in 2019 by merging Henry Schein's Animal Health business with Vets First Choice, combining veterinary distribution with a prescription-management / online-pharmacy technology platform. After a struggling public run, it was taken private by CD&R and TPG in 2022 at ~$4B. Under private ownership it has pushed harder on vertical SaaS (Pulse practice management, vRxPro online pharmacy, Comms client engagement) and layered embedded finance on top — Covetrus Payments (Stripe), Stripe Capital for merchants, and CareCredit for pet-parent patient financing.