Selling Your Veterinary Practice to WellHaven Pet Health: A 2026 Guide

Key takeaways

• WellHaven Pet Health is a veterinarian-founded, private equity-backed practice group headquartered in Vancouver, Washington, founded in 2017 by a team that included former Banfield leaders and built around the idea of a vet-led alternative to large operators.
• Martis Capital is the majority private equity backer per its own portfolio page. Martis was named Capricorn Healthcare when it first invested in July 2017 and rebranded to Martis Capital in August 2018, so the current sponsor is the same firm that backed WellHaven from the start.
• The through-line is team and pet wellbeing. WellHaven’s stated model is “Well people, well pets, well practice and well community,” delivered through flexible scheduling, training support, and centralized finance, HR, marketing, and IT so doctors can focus on care.
• The footprint is regional, not national. WellHaven operates more than 40 hospitals across Western and Midwestern states including Colorado, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Arizona, which it entered in October 2023. Geographic fit inside those clusters matters.
• The reliable way to know what WellHaven, or any buyer, would actually pay for your specific practice is to run a structured competitive process. We call ours the Elite Selling System: we hand-select and vet every buyer who gets to bid, the way a doorman with a velvet rope lets in only the right people, then run a private bidding window inside that vetted group. When a buyer bids against a curated group of qualified competitors, the number, and the terms, are reliably different from what comes out of a direct one-on-one conversation.

When a vet asks me about selling your veterinary practice to WellHaven Pet Health, the conversation almost always opens on culture rather than money. That’s by design.

WellHaven leans harder on team wellbeing in its pitch to owners than most buyers do, and owners feel it. The question I hear isn’t “are these people going to pay me fairly,” at least not first.

It’s “will my team actually be better off, and is the support model real.”

Those are good instincts. WellHaven was founded in 2017 by people who came out of a large operator and wanted to build something they framed as vet-led, with doctors at the top of the clinical decisions.

That origin story shapes everything about how WellHaven presents itself to a seller.

What follows is the same picture I’d lay out over dinner if you handed me a WellHaven offer and asked what to make of it. Who WellHaven is and who backs them, what the team-wellbeing support model means in practice, how that translates into deal terms, where your negotiating leverage actually sits, and how to think about WellHaven against the rest of the field in a properly run process.

Here is the short version, the part most owners want answered up front. WellHaven Pet Health is a veterinarian-founded, private equity-backed group of 40-plus hospitals across the Western and Midwestern US, majority-backed by Martis Capital and built around a stated commitment to team and pet wellbeing. For the right general practice inside its geographic clusters, WellHaven is a serious buyer with a genuine culture differentiator. The hard part is making sure the culture and support promises that drew you to them end up in the contract, not just the brochure.

Quick facts on WellHaven Pet Health

WellHaven Pet Health was founded in 2017. The founding team included John Bork as CEO, Bob Lester, DVM, as Chief Medical Officer, and a group of roughly 12 former Banfield employees, per VIN News Service.

The explicit positioning from day one was a vet-led alternative to large operators, with doctors at the top.

WellHaven is headquartered in Vancouver, Washington. Per its own About page, the platform operates more than 40 hospitals across several states, and its Sell Your Practice page references supporting 40-plus practices.

The geographic footprint is regional and concentrated in the Western and Midwestern US. Sources cite Colorado, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Arizona, the last of which WellHaven entered in October 2023 by adding Blue Cross Veterinary Clinic, per Martis Capital.

Some 2025 listings also reference Kansas and expansion toward California, though the exact state count varies by source and newer states should be treated as approximate.

On ownership, the picture is straightforward once you trace the name change. Martis Capital is the majority private equity backer, and lists WellHaven on its portfolio page. Martis was named Capricorn Healthcare when it closed its original investment in WellHaven on July 10, 2017, describing the company at the time as a rollup of companion-animal general practices across the Western US.

Capricorn rebranded as Martis Capital on August 28, 2018. So the firm now listed as WellHaven’s sponsor is the same one that backed it from the beginning, not a later owner.

WellHaven also describes part of its ownership as resting with a group of veterinarians and veterinary professionals.

Leadership has evolved since founding. Founder John Bork moved on from WellHaven’s executive ranks and joined a childcare company, Learning Care Group, in 2024.

Jenni Jones, who joined as COO in January 2019, was promoted to CEO in 2022, per Today’s Veterinary Business; more recently Justin Scambray is listed as Chief Executive Officer, with Jones now serving as President and Chief Operating Officer, per WellHaven’s team page. Day-to-day control rests with WellHaven’s current management under Martis ownership.

What WellHaven Pet Health actually pays for veterinary practices in 2026

The consistent pattern we see. When a multi-doctor practice gets a direct offer from any single buyer’s acquisition team, WellHaven included, the offer reflects the leverage that buyer perceives in the room. A buyer facing no visible competition has no structural reason to lead with its strongest cash percentage, its tightest earnout protections, or its most flexible terms.

Put that same buyer inside a structured process where other qualified bidders are underwriting the same practice in parallel, and those dimensions tend to move. The pattern isn’t specific to WellHaven.

It’s how every buyer in this market calibrates an offer to the room.

WellHaven does not publish a standard price sheet for any practice profile. Per industry M&A commentary, competitive outcomes for strong multi-doctor general practices in the $2 million-plus revenue range tend to land in the low-teens EBITDA range across the major buyer pool.

EBITDA here means what your practice earns in pure operating profit, before taxes and accounting choices, and the multiple is the multiplier buyers apply to that number to set the price.

The actual number for any specific practice depends most on whether other qualified buyers are at the table and on the practice’s specific profile. WellHaven competes in that band when it bids on practices that fit its criteria, with the offer on any specific deal negotiated case by case under confidentiality.

There’s a geographic wrinkle worth naming with WellHaven specifically. Because the footprint is regional and built around clusters in the Western and Midwestern states, your location relative to that footprint affects how strategically valuable your practice is to WellHaven.

A strong practice that fills out an existing WellHaven cluster is worth more to WellHaven than the same practice in a market where WellHaven has no presence. That’s useful leverage to understand before you negotiate.

Our PE pricing guide walks through how buyer-specific strategic fit moves the number, and our overview of how to value a veterinary practice covers the EBITDA work that sits underneath any offer.

The cash-at-close and equity picture

Per industry M&A commentary across the private equity-backed buyer pool, the typical offer structure allocates the majority of total deal value to cash at close, with the rest split among earnout, rollover or partnership equity, and occasional seller notes. An earnout is part of the price paid later, only if the practice hits agreed targets after closing.

Rollover equity is keeping a slice of ownership in the buyer’s entity instead of taking all cash. WellHaven’s specific allocation on any given deal is negotiated case by case.

WellHaven’s vet-led ownership framing is where its structure conversation gets interesting. The platform describes itself as owned in part by veterinarians and veterinary professionals, and secondary descriptions of its Sell Your Practice page reference ownership arrangements ranging from a full sale all the way to co-ownership.

I want to be precise here: the WellHaven page text we reviewed did not itself spell out explicit equity tiers, so treat the specific co-ownership structures as something to confirm directly rather than assume.

What I’d tell an owner is this. If retaining equity matters to you, and WellHaven’s vet-ownership story is part of the appeal, do not take the range on faith from a marketing page.

Ask exactly what equity options are available, on what terms, with what liquidity path. Then test those answers against what other qualified buyers will put on the table for the same practice.

The vet-led framing is a real differentiator worth exploring, but it only has value to you if it shows up in the actual deal.

A note on deal structure types in the current market

The broader US veterinary M&A market has shifted toward partnership and co-ownership structures over the past couple of years. In these structures the buyer takes a majority stake, the seller retains a minority slice as direct equity in the practice, and a contractual put or call mechanism defines the future buyout date and price.

WellHaven’s own vet-ownership positioning sits naturally alongside this trend, which is part of why the co-ownership question comes up so often with this particular buyer.

WellHaven’s specific posture on partnership versus full-sale structures is determined case by case and is not fully enumerated in its public materials. What I’d flag for any seller is to ask explicitly whether co-ownership is available, and to get the put or call formula, the timing, and the governance rights in writing rather than in conversation.

What WellHaven Pet Health’s team-wellbeing model actually means for sellers

This is the heart of the WellHaven story, and the dimension where a seller has to do the most careful thinking.

The stated model. WellHaven’s through-line is wellbeing, captured in its framework “Well people, well pets, well practice and well community,” built on the founding belief that each team member and pet parent makes a difference. Per WellHaven’s own materials, the support model includes flexible scheduling such as 4-day work weeks, advanced training and certification support, and centralized handling of finance, HR, marketing, and IT so that doctors are able to focus on pet care.

The seller pitch. On its Sell Your Practice page, WellHaven tells owners they will spend more time with patients and their parents and less time in the front office, that they can focus on care, and that WellHaven handles scheduling, billing, collections, HR, payroll, recruiting, taxes, and equipment. WellHaven also leans on its vet-led identity in its pitch to sellers, emphasizing personal continuity, and promising a process designed to ease the changeover with retained staff and a preserved community legacy.

The Fear Free standard. WellHaven partners with Fear Free as a brand standard, which is consistent with the wellbeing positioning and with the kind of culture-forward practice WellHaven tends to court.

Here’s the honest read. These are genuine differentiators, and for a lot of owners they’re exactly the right reasons to like a buyer.

Team wellbeing, scheduling flexibility, and getting the administrative load off a clinician’s plate are real benefits, and WellHaven has built its identity around delivering them.

But a stated model is a stated model. The work for a seller is converting the parts that matter most to you, your staffing levels, your team’s schedules, your clinical autonomy, which services stay local, into explicit, binding terms in the purchase agreement.

A buyer that genuinely believes in its support model should have no problem committing the specifics to paper. If specific commitments get harder to pin down once you ask for them in writing, that itself is useful information.

How WellHaven Pet Health integrates the practices it acquires

WellHaven’s integration approach follows directly from its wellbeing model. The platform absorbs the administrative and operational load so the clinical team can stay focused on medicine.

Centralized back office. Per WellHaven’s materials, the platform handles finance, HR, marketing, IT, scheduling, billing, collections, payroll, recruiting, taxes, and equipment across its network. For an owner who has spent years personally carrying those functions, that’s a meaningful change in daily life.

Scheduling and team support. The 4-day work week and flexible scheduling are part of the pitch, along with advanced training and certification support. These are the levers WellHaven uses to deliver on the “well people” half of its framework.

Continuity at changeover. WellHaven emphasizes retaining staff and preserving the practice’s community legacy through the transition, and describes the changeover process as designed to ease that period.

Doctor relationships. Across private equity-backed veterinary acquisitions generally, selling owners commonly stay on in a clinical or leadership role for a multi-year post-close period, with compensation typically structured as a base salary plus a production bonus. WellHaven’s specific post-sale employment and non-compete terms for any given deal are negotiated case by case under the definitive purchase agreement.

A practical note on integration and the earnout. If your deal includes an earnout, the way centralized services costs are allocated to your practice can affect practice-level EBITDA during the measurement window.

That’s not a knock on WellHaven; it’s true of any group with shared services. It just means the mechanics of how central costs hit your P&L during the earnout deserve clear language in the agreement.

WellHaven Pet Health’s recent activity in 2025-2026

WellHaven enters 2026 as a steady regional acquirer. It has continued add-on acquisitions, entering Arizona via Blue Cross Veterinary Clinic in October 2023, which brought the platform past 40 hospitals across its active markets, per Martis Capital.

A March 2025 acquisition of Valley Animal Hospital has also been reported, though that one comes from a secondary aggregator rather than a primary WellHaven or Martis release, so treat it as approximate.

The takeaway for an owner getting 2026 outreach from WellHaven is this. You’re dealing with an established, vet-founded regional platform with a clear culture identity and an institutional backer in Martis.

That’s a credible buyer for the right practice. The work is making sure the culture and support story that makes WellHaven attractive translates into terms you can hold them to.

Have an offer from WellHaven Pet Health? Get a Free Practice Value Estimate and we’ll decompose the terms, identify what’s typically negotiable, and project what your practice would likely clear in a structured competitive process with the broader qualified buyer pool. No upfront cost, no obligation.

How WellHaven Pet Health compares to the other major buyers

If you’re weighing WellHaven, you’re implicitly comparing them to the other buyers who would compete for your practice. Here’s how they stack up across the dimensions that matter.

Versus Mars Veterinary Health (VCA, BluePearl, Banfield). Mars is the strategic family-owned exception in the US buyer pool, distinct from WellHaven’s private equity-backed structure. There’s a nice irony in the comparison, since WellHaven was founded by former Banfield people positioning a vet-led alternative.

WellHaven’s regional, culture-forward identity contrasts with the scale of the Mars network. Our Mars Veterinary Health buyer profile covers the Mars-specific dimensions.

Versus the national private equity-backed platforms. WellHaven is regional by design, concentrated in Western and Midwestern clusters, where several of the largest platforms are national. That geography cuts both ways.

WellHaven may value a practice inside its footprint strategically, while a national platform may compete hard in markets where it’s expanding. Putting both types in the same process is how you find out who wants your practice most.

Versus other vet-led or culture-forward buyers. WellHaven’s strongest differentiator is the wellbeing model and the vet-led ownership framing. Other buyers emphasize partnership structures, brand preservation, or specialty depth.

The right way to evaluate which buyer’s promises are real, and which pays best, is to put the relevant ones in a competitive process and read their full term sheets side by side. Our overview of veterinary practice consolidators maps the broader field.

What to negotiate before signing with WellHaven Pet Health

Six priorities when negotiating with WellHaven, with the culture-and-support commitments as the highest-leverage category given that they are the core of WellHaven’s pitch.

Culture and support commitments in writing (highest priority). This is the WellHaven-specific one. The wellbeing model, scheduling flexibility, staffing levels, training support, and which administrative functions WellHaven actually takes over should be specified in the agreement, not left to the marketing page.

Pin down the commitments that drew you to WellHaven so they survive a change in regional management.

Cash at close percentage. Push for more of the deal as guaranteed cash rather than contingent consideration. Every dollar moved from earnout to cash at close is money you keep regardless of what happens after closing.

Earnout protections. If there’s an earnout, negotiate a working capital floor, a clear definition of what counts in the EBITDA calculation, and an explicit limit on shifting central-services costs onto your practice during the measurement window.

Equity and co-ownership terms. WellHaven’s vet-ownership framing makes this a live question. If you’re rolling equity or co-owning, get the liquidity path, the put or call formula and timing, governance and information rights, and anti-dilution protection in writing.

Non-compete scope. Non-competes commonly run several years over a defined radius. Negotiate for a shorter duration, a tighter radius, and any carve-outs you’d need to keep practicing in a way that doesn’t compete.

Post-sale clinical autonomy. Make explicit which clinical and operational decisions stay with you versus migrating to WellHaven’s central or regional structure. The wellbeing pitch is built on clinical focus, so autonomy language should be easy to align on if the model is real.

Should I take a WellHaven offer or run a competitive process?

For WellHaven specifically, the value of a competitive process shows up in two places. The headline economics, where competition is the only reliable way to know whether WellHaven’s number is its best number.

And the culture-and-support terms, where competition gives you the leverage to convert WellHaven’s stated commitments into binding ones.

The mechanical reason is the same as for any buyer. Without competition, no buyer has a reason to soften its standard template or to commit its softer promises to paper.

With other qualified bidders at the table, every term becomes negotiable, because every buyer knows you have real alternatives. For a buyer whose appeal rests heavily on a culture story, that leverage is exactly what turns the story into enforceable terms.

WellHaven participates in well-run competitive processes when invited and the practice fits its criteria. The WellHaven-specific dimensions, the wellbeing commitments, the equity options, the autonomy language, get sharper attention when WellHaven knows other qualified buyers are underwriting the same practice in the same window.

What our Elite Selling System actually does

For a WellHaven-affiliated transaction, our process is shaped by the fact that the buyer’s strongest selling point is culture, which means the negotiation surface lives as much in the commitment language as in the multiple.

Phase one, the commitment audit. Before any bidder packet goes out, we map WellHaven’s stated culture-and-support model against what’s actually contractible. Which promises can be written into the agreement, in what terms, and where does WellHaven’s standard template leave them as discretionary.

That audit tells us where the leverage is before the process opens.

Phase two, the bidder mix. From the named veterinary consolidators we actively track, we invite only the ones that genuinely compete for this specific practice on the dimensions you care about. For a seller drawn to WellHaven’s wellbeing model, that means inviting other culture-forward and vet-led buyers, the relevant regional and national platforms with footprint in your market, and the strategic family-owned option where the practice fits.

The right mix is usually 5 to 7 qualified bidders.

Phase three, the term-by-term comparison. Bidders return full term sheets, not just headline numbers. You see side-by-side comparisons across cash at close, earnout structure and protections, equity or co-ownership terms, non-compete scope, post-sale role, culture-and-support commitments, and clinical autonomy.

You choose on the dimensions that matter to you, sometimes the highest number, sometimes the buyer whose commitments are the most enforceable.

The economic result holds across deal types. Practices in the qualifying revenue band that run our process consistently clear materially better total outcomes, often multiple seven figures better, than the same practice would have cleared by signing the original direct term sheet without testing the field.

Closing thought

The honest read on WellHaven Pet Health: it’s a credible, vet-founded regional buyer with a genuine culture differentiator, backed by an established private equity sponsor in Martis Capital. For an owner who cares deeply about what happens to their team after the sale, WellHaven’s wellbeing model is a real reason to take the conversation seriously.

What separates a well-negotiated WellHaven outcome from a disappointing one isn’t whether the culture story is appealing, it almost always is. It’s whether the parts of that story you care about end up in the contract, and whether the price reflects what your practice is actually worth to the broader field.

Both of those come from running a process, not from accepting the first offer because the brochure resonated.

If you’ve received a WellHaven offer, or their team has reached out to start the conversation, the highest-leverage move is to understand how the rest of the field would structure the same practice, on both economics and commitments, before you sign anything. Get a Free Practice Value Estimate and we’ll lay out the same comparison we’d walk a client through across a dinner table. For the bigger-picture decision of which buyer fits, start with our guides on selling your veterinary practice and who to sell your veterinary practice to.

Sources

WellHaven Pet Health and parent company materials

1. WellHaven Pet Health. About Us — footprint, culture framework, and team-wellbeing model. WellHaven company materials. wellhaven.com
2. WellHaven Pet Health. Sell Your Practice — seller support model and changeover process. WellHaven company materials. wellhaven.com
3. WellHaven Pet Health. WellHaven Family of Practices Announces Partnership with Fear Free. WellHaven company materials. wellhaven.com
4. Martis Capital. WellHaven Pet Health — portfolio company profile. Martis Capital. martiscapital.com
5. Martis Capital (as Capricorn Healthcare). Capricorn Healthcare Completes Investment in WellHaven PetHealth. July 2017. martiscapital.com
6. PR Newswire / Martis Capital. Capricorn Healthcare Rebrands as Martis Capital. August 28, 2018. prnewswire.com
7. Martis Capital. WellHaven PetHealth Expands to Arizona, Adding Blue Cross Veterinary Clinic. October 2023. martiscapital.com
8. PR Newswire / Learning Care Group. Learning Care Group Names John Bork President and Chief Operating Officer. 2024. prnewswire.com

Veterinary industry and profession reporting

9. VIN News Service. WellHaven founding, vet-led positioning, and former-Banfield founding team. news.vin.com
10. Today’s Veterinary Business. WellHaven names Jenni Jones CEO (2022). todaysveterinarybusiness.com
11. WellHaven Pet Health. Meet the WellHaven Team — current leadership (Justin Scambray, CEO; Jenni Jones, President & COO; Dr. Bob Lester, CMO). wellhaven.com
12. Clark County Today. Vancouver-based WellHaven seeks to create happy vets and pets amid growth. clarkcountytoday.com