Modern Animal’s ‘What’s Next’ With Chewy

There are moments in company building where the outcome feels obvious in hindsight but only because a small group of people were willing to see it early, and build with conviction when it wasn’t. This is one of those moments. 

We’re thrilled to share that Modern Animal has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Chewy — a milestone that marks not just an exceptional outcome, but the beginning of something much bigger.

Looking back

True Ventures co-led Modern Animal’s Series A in 2020 and partnered with Steven Eidelman, Ben Jacobs, and the founding team through every stage of investment that followed. From day one, we believed this team wasn’t just building a better veterinary clinic; they were reimagining what pet care could be.

If you have a pet, you’ve experienced the long wait times, fragmented experiences, exhausted clinicians, and a system that feels reactive rather than thoughtful and personalized. Modern Animal believed veterinary care could – and should – be:

• Clinically excellent
• Technology-powered
• Experience-led
• And deeply compassionate, for our pets, their families, and their care teams

That combination sounds obvious now. It wasn’t then.

From the beginning, what stood out was the clarity and ambition of the entire founding team. Alongside Steven, Co-founders Ben Jacobs and David Bowman helped shape the company with a rare combination of product instinct, operational rigor, and long-term thinking. And COO Ashley Peterson Siegler has been beyond instrumental in translating that vision into a scaled, high-functioning operating system across every clinic. They weren’t interested in incremental improvement. They were building a new model:

• Membership-based care
• Purpose-built clinics
• Integrated technology that actually reduces friction
• A system designed to support veterinarians, not burn them out

They built it methodically — clinic by clinic, city by city — earning trust from pet parents and clinicians alike. Today, Modern Animal operates 29 practices across California, Texas, and Colorado, with a reputation for delivering some of the best care experiences in the industry. What makes this next chapter so compelling is the alignment.

What’s next

Chewy has quietly built one of the most trusted relationships with pet parents in the U.S. — with extraordinary reach, data, and customer love. Modern Animal has built one of the most thoughtful, experience-led veterinary care models we’ve seen. 

Together, we believe this creates something powerful – a truly connected, omni-channel pet health platform where:

• Digital and physical care reinforce each other
• Access expands meaningfully
• And the experience for both pets and their people improves dramatically

Importantly, what makes Modern Animal special doesn’t change. Their clinics. Their brand. Their commitment to great medicine and great experience. Those remain intact.

What changes is the speed and scope of what’s possible. With Chewy’s platform behind them, Modern Animal can reach more pet parents, support more veterinary teams, and accelerate the mission they started with.

A note of gratitude

To Steven, Ben, David, Ashley, and the entire Modern Animal team: Thank you. It’s been a privilege to partner with you from the earliest days and to watch you build with such clarity, care, and ambition. A special thank you as well to board member Karen Boone, a trusted partner to us over the years (including at Peloton) and an incredible force around the Modern Animal table. 

And to our co-investors, Founders Fund, Addition, and Upfront Ventures: Thank you for the partnership and shared belief in what this company could become. This is a shining example of how an aligned syndicate of investors can partner with Founders and their ELT to navigate the natural ebb and flow of a startup with meaningful impact. 

To the team at Chewy: We couldn’t imagine a better partner for what comes next.

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