The Pet Food Boom: Finding Hidden M&A Gems in a $193B Market
No matter how niche or fragmented an industry, our platform surfaces and finds in-depth details about even the most highly specialized markets. We’ve previously covered the data center industry, ambulatory care centers and the growing legal gambling space. This week we took a look at high-end pet foods that are quickly growing into a major market.
The global pet food market is projected to grow from $132.92 billion in 2025 to $193.65 billion by 2032. While giants like Mars, Nestlé Purina, and Hill's still dominate the shelves, hundreds of boutique brands are nibbling at their margins with freeze-dried bison, insect protein, and something called “functional mushroom blends”. It’s a fragmented, fast-evolving industry where one new ingredient trend can spark an entire startup wave. The opportunities are real for investors, but the challenge is figuring out where.
Across America, pets are dining like food bloggers on meals described as “human-grade”, “chef-crafted”, and “superfood-infused”. There’s even a Great Pyrenees named Bear in Massachusetts whose $13-a-day meal plan made headlines in The New York Times. His owner tried everything from Costco cans to homemade stew before landing on a subscription service that promised customized recipes with brussels sprouts and turkey. Bear got bored anyway.
The pet food boom is driven by its premium segment, where kibble is out, quinoa is in, and the line between “dog bowl” and “brunch bowl” keeps getting blurrier. Behind the Instagram-worthy packaging and celebrity endorsements lies a market that’s quietly ballooned into a juggernaut.
There is even a celebrity rush. Rob Lowe joined Ultimate Pet Nutrition recently as chief pet advocate, lending his star power to a brand focused on premium supplements. Katherine Heigl launched Badlands Ranch with superfood formulas. Chuck Norris founded Lone Wolf Ranch, entering the space with an air-dried nutrition brand. Even Snoop Dogg got into the game with what he calls “pet products for royalty”. But when Post Holdings acquired Rachael Ray Nutrish as part of a $1.2 billion deal, it signaled that celebrity-backed brands have staying power beyond social media buzz.
And niche-focused dealmakers have kept their eyes on the sector ever since. Here’s how Finder, our AI deal-sourcing and market map tool, narrowed down the search for us.
The Pet Food Market Map
The pet food market isn’t just Mars and Nestlé. There are thousands of private companies, ranging from established players to startups that launched last month on Kickstarter and raised funding globally. Mapping that landscape manually is nearly impossible. But our AI-powered tools surfaced interesting names controlling the market. Here are the big three:
- Mars owns Pedigree and Royal Canin, plus over 1,000 VCA Animal Care hospitals, giving it vertical integration from product to point of care.
- Hill's Pet Nutrition, owned by Colgate-Palmolive, has 40 years of research backing its veterinary-recommended formulas.
- Nestlé Purina Petcare represents one of Nestlé's largest and fastest-growing categories globally.
The noteworthy leaders and disruptors are:
Blue Buffalo. Blue Buffalo, acquired by General Mills, carved out the natural food positioning before getting bought for premium valuation.
Royal Canin. Royal Canin operates as a premium segment leader under the Mars umbrella.
Del Monte Foods. Del Monte Foods, traditionally known for canned goods, has been expanding into premium pet nutrition.
Diamond Pet Foods. Diamond Pet Foods produces brands like Taste of the Wild and Diamond Naturals, known for grain-free formulas and protein-rich recipes crafted with real meat.
Champion Petfoods. Champion Petfoods makes Orijen and Acana, two brands focused on high-protein, meat-first nutrition.
Freshpet. Freshpet pioneered the fresh, refrigerated segment and now has a significant retail presence.
How to Find Acquisition Targets
The fragmentation in pet foods creates natural M&A opportunities. Post Holdings’ acquisitions from J.M. Smucker demonstrate that consolidation is underway. Large players need innovation pipelines, and buying promising startups is faster than developing products internally. Strategic buyers can bolt on niche brands to fill portfolio gaps. Private equity sees recurring revenue models and margin expansion potential in premium segments.
But identifying the right targets requires speed and precision. This is where our full suite of AI-powered dealmaking tools comes into play:
- Finder, our deal sourcing tool, allows you to explore companies while learning about comparables, industries, investors, and similar opportunities. In the pet food space, that means quickly identifying which celebrity-backed brands have real revenue versus just Instagram followers.
- Acquirer, our acquisition tool, queries potential acquisition targets based on the acquiring company. If you're a major pet food manufacturer looking to enter the freeze-dried segment, Acquirer surfaces the logical targets and explains why they fit your strategy. (One note: some of the niche companies are looking for funding right now as displayed by our predictive analytics.)
- Raiser, our tool to identify investors, queries potential financial or strategic investors for companies based on industry, raise size, and relevant precedent transactions. For startups in the premium pet food space, Raiser identifies which VCs and investors have previously made investments in this space.
- Valer, our business valuation software, conducts sophisticated and customizable business valuations with just a few inputs. The method allows for an adjustable DCF, PGR and WACC, comparable company valuations and precedent transactions. If you're looking at a private pet food company with limited financial disclosures, Valer gives you a starting point for negotiations.
- Scholar, our deep research tool, creates in-depth research around companies, industries, or potential transactions. Scholar pulls from both Cyndx's proprietary data and trusted external sources, creating comprehensive reports in minutes instead of weeks. For complex due diligence on pet food manufacturers, Scholar validates and synthesizes insights with proper citations, helping teams move fast without sacrificing depth.
No Market Too Niche for the Best Financial AI
If our AI tools can navigate the complex world of celebrity-backed, human-grade, subscription pet food, it can handle any specialized market. Markets are fragmenting across every industry, not just pet nutrition. Traditional research methods can’t keep pace with the specialization. Manually tracking thousands of private companies, emerging trends, and competitive dynamics is a losing battle.
AI-powered deal discovery turns complexity into a competitive advantage. Whether you’re sourcing acquisition targets, mapping competitive landscapes, or identifying strategic investors, having tools purpose-built for dealmakers matters. The best opportunities often hide in the most specialized corners of the market. The question is whether you have the intelligence infrastructure to find them before everyone else does.
Pet foods might seem like an unlikely case study for M&A software, but it’s exactly these fast-growing markets where AI deal sourcing platforms prove their value. The $193 billion opportunity is real. The hidden gems are out there. Finding them is the part that separates the winners from everyone else still doing research the old way.
Learn more about how proper dealmaking is done in 2025.