IVC Evidensia, the European leader in veterinary consolidation, operates as of 2025 more than 2,500 clinics and hospitals in 20 countries with approximately 41,000 employees. In the first half of 2024 it invested GBP 69 million (approximately USD 124 million) for the opening of 35 new locations and has more than 200 clinics in France alone. Shareholders EQT and Berkshire Partners considered a multi-billion IPO in London in 2025. Mars Veterinary Health manages approximately 3,000 global facilities and around 70,000 employees under the brands Banfield — around 1,000 clinics across the United States, Mexico and Canada — VCA with more than 1,000 clinics in the US and Canada, BluePearl, Linnaeus, AniCura, VSH and Mount Pleasant. AniCura, part of the Mars group since 2018, operates with about 450 facilities, 11,000 employees of whom 4,000 are veterinarians, in 14 European countries.
In the United Kingdom more than 60% of the market is in the hands of six large groups: CVS, IVC, Linnaeus, Medivet, Pets at Home and VetPartners. Private equity has invested a total of USD 51.6 billion in the global veterinary sector, with USD 9.3 billion in the first four months of 2024 alone according to the Private Equity Stakeholder Project. For the Italian market the picture is structurally different: AniCura Italia has 14 clinics across 5 regions caring for approximately 65,000 pets, with a new opening in Sasso Marconi in 2025; the Italian network AVELIA — Alleanza Veterinaria Italia — was founded in 2024 as a "values-based" aggregation of excellence clinics; FNOVI manages the official register of veterinary facilities at strutture veterinarie.it. Italian veterinary activities grew by 39.4% in 2024 alone and by 90.1% over the 2014-2024 decade according to UnionCamere. The picture is that of a fragmented market that is growing rapidly and that international consolidation has begun to watch closely.
The CMA UK case as a European wake-up call
The most relevant regulatory signal of 2024-2026 on veterinary consolidation came from the United Kingdom. The British Competition and Markets Authority conducted a market investigation between 2024 and 2026 culminating in a final decision on March 24, 2026 with 21 reforms. The findings are stark: prices up 63% between 2016 and 2023, consumer detriment estimated above GBP 1 billion over five years, regulatory system described as "wholly unfit for purpose" because it covers only professional veterinarians and not the companies that own the chains. The remedies will enter into force from September 2026 with compliance required by early 2027.
For European veterinary consolidation the CMA case is the first precedent in which a national antitrust authority has publicly quantified the consumer harm of vet corporatisation. The implications for other EU countries have not been immediate but the European Commission and national authorities — Bundeskartellamt in Germany, AGCM in Italy — are observing the British model. For consolidating groups, pricing strategy, transparency of the offer to the end customer, and the lock-in model of the pet owner through loyalty programmes and affiliated pet insurance become regulatory risk factors, not just reputational ones.
The tech stack is the real glue
Veterinary consolidation is not simply the purchase of clinics: it is the operational integration that enables real scale economies. Chains do not buy "clinics"; they buy patient flows that can be consolidated into a central EMR, shared labs, imaging AI and cross-clinic referral systems. Without technological integration, acquisitions remain a financial portfolio, not an operational organization. The typical consolidator tech stack is composed of four layers: the Practice Management System as the clinical and administrative system of record, the diagnostic stack for laboratory and imaging, the referral platform to direct complex cases to the group's specialist facilities, and the customer engagement and owner loyalty infrastructure.
On the Practice Management System side the market is dominated by four main platforms. IDEXX Veterinary Software offers Cornerstone — one of the historic systems, built in 1985 — and ezyVet, a cloud platform popular in specialist and emergency clinics, with pricing starting at USD 245 per month. VetSpire is preferred by multi-site corporate groups for its reporting and adaptability. Provet Cloud is the Northern European cloud alternative. More than 80% of the PMS market today is cloud-based according to sector data. For IVC Evidensia, Mars Veterinary Health and AniCura, the choice of PMS is not an operational detail: it defines the speed of acquisition integration and the ability to extract scale value from the portfolio.
AI imaging: hype vs clinical reality
The veterinary AI diagnostic imaging segment entered the enterprise scaling phase in 2024-2025. SignalPET, the most widely deployed platform, is used in more than 2,300 veterinary clinics worldwide, analyzes radiographs with reports on more than 50 clinical findings, and launched in early 2024 the SignalSTAT service that combines AI and human radiologist for reporting within 45 minutes 24/7. SignalPET claims more than 50,000 radiographs analyzed per week. Vetology is the US competitor with integrated cloud teleradiology. IDEXX, Zoetis and Antech are in segment consolidation according to Grand View Research 2025.
The professional constraint is significant. In 2025 the specialist colleges of veterinary radiology — the US ACVR and the European ECVDI — took a formal position stating that no veterinary AI diagnostic imaging product today meets standards of transparency, validation and safety for autonomous clinical use. It is a critical position documented in Frontiers in Veterinary Science and JAVMA in 2025, and one that places veterinary chains before a strategic tension: AI imaging produces real scale economy on cost per report, but autonomous use without specialist radiologist supervision is contested by the profession. The "AI plus human radiologist" model of SignalSTAT is the most mature compromise response in 2026.
Telemedicine: the promise that did not materialize
Veterinary telemedicine experienced an adoption peak during COVID and a subsequent declining trajectory. The Akveo survey State of Veterinary Telehealth 2025 documents global adoption dropping from 38% in 2023 to 29.2% in 2024. The structural constraint is the VCPR principle — Veterinary-Client-Patient Relationship — which the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe reconfirmed in its 2024 position paper: telemedicine is acceptable as a supplement to physical examination, not as a substitute, and only within a pre-existing veterinarian-client-patient relationship. Cold-start remote triage, which works in human telemedicine, does not transfer mechanically to veterinary practice for clinical and regulatory reasons.
The value of veterinary telemedicine in 2026 is concentrated on follow-up, chronic conditions, post-surgery and routine reviews — not on the first visit. For consolidating chains this means that the proprietary app investments of 2020-2022 are requiring a reconfiguration of the value proposition: from "alternative to the visit" to "extension of the relationship". It is a less triumphant conclusion than PE investors had predicted, but it is the one the market has actually structured.
Italy: 24-36 months before acceleration
For the Italian veterinary market in 2026 the strategic picture is clear on two points. The first is that consolidation will accelerate over the next 24-36 months under the combined push of Northern European private equity, the expansion of chains already present — AniCura, IVC Evidensia directly or indirectly — and demographic pressure on independent veterinarians, many of whom are approaching the age of ownership transition without internal succession plans. The 39.4% growth of Italian veterinary activities in 2024 alone and 90% over the decade is a signal that the market is growing, and growing markets attract financial consolidation.
The second is that the "sell at a high multiple" window for Italian independent veterinarians is narrowing. The EBITDA multiples paid by consolidators have come down in 2024-2025 versus the 2021-2022 peak, and the UK CMA case introduces a regulatory uncertainty that brakes the most aggressive valuations. For an Italian independent veterinarian the 2026 agenda articulates around three points: ordering the tech stack — cloud-based PMS, IDEXX lab integration, digital presence — to be acquisition-ready; evaluating possible entry into Italian networks such as AVELIA as an alternative to international consolidation; planning ownership transition with anticipation, because the negotiation times of a structured acquisition are measured in months, not weeks. The English model is not automatically replicable in Italy, but the structural forces that produced it are also active here. Remaining independent without planning is a choice, not a guaranteed inheritance.
