Jean-Philippe Doumeng | CEO & Co-Founder, Napo

Jean-Philippe Doumeng is the co-founder and CEO of Napo Pet Insurance. After years working in human digital health, he turned his attention to pet insurance—driven by first-hand frustration with a system that consistently failed pet parents when they needed it most.

In this conversation, Doumeng breaks down how hundreds of interviews with vets, pet parents, and claims handlers led to a ground-up rebuild of the category, why Napo keeps claims fully in-house, and how a care-first tech stack is changing what pet insurance can—and should—look like.

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What inspired you to start Napo?

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Before starting Napo, I’d spent years working in digital health for humans—first as co-founder at Tictrac, then leading business development at Babylon Health during its hypergrowth phase. That experience gave me a deep appreciation for the power of technology to reshape traditional industries, and I became increasingly fascinated by insurtech as a space. I followed companies like Lemonade and Alan Health closely: they were building insurance companies people actually wanted to use, and that really inspired me.

At the same time, I experienced first-hand how broken the pet insurance market was with my dog, Napoleon (“Napo”). Policies were full of fine print, confusing exclusions, and delays that failed pet parents at the exact moment they needed help. Meanwhile, pets had become family—but insurance hadn’t caught up.

That disconnect became the catalyst for Napo. We set out to build the insurer we’d want for our own pets: comprehensive, fast, and fair. No hidden catches. No compromises. And importantly, not just focused on claims, but on giving pet parents peace of mind—from everyday support to life’s most difficult moments.

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What tools, technology, or software do you rely on to run and grow your business efficiently?

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Napo’s platform was built from the ground up with scalability and customer experience in mind. We are not just layering tools onto legacy systems; we have architected every component to support fast, safe innovation. We deploy to production in under three minutes, with full global distribution, enabling us to scale horizontally as our customer base and their needs grow.

We continuously ship new features and services, monitoring their real-world impact through a robust experimentation platform. Crucially, we do this without compromising quality; our automated end-to-end testing ensures that every change enhances, rather than degrades, the experience for our customers.

On the claims side, we have built a vendor-agnostic automation pipeline using bleeding-edge tech, including large language models and predictive algorithms. This enables us to automate up to 50% of claims instantly while routing complex cases to our human team for compassionate support. By owning our full tech stack, we are able to move fast, iterate quickly, and stay laser-focused on delivering a 6-star experience—powered by tech, but always grounded in empathy.

Ultimately, tech enables our small team to punch well above its weight while still delivering a 6-star customer experience.

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How did you go from idea to launch?

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We started by obsessing over the problem, not the solution. We spoke to pet parents, vets (hundreds of them), and even claims handlers to understand where the experience was broken and what truly great could look like. But we also did our homework: we read every policy document we could find from the major insurers.

What we saw was eye-opening: layers of fine print, confusing exclusions, and inconsistent logic in what was or wasn’t covered. A lot of it didn’t make sense. The value propositions were outdated, opaque, and clearly not built for modern pet parents.

From there, we assembled the core team—product, engineering, and customer ops—all aligned around fixing these issues from the ground up. One of the first key decisions we made was to keep the claims function fully in-house. Most insurers outsource this to TPAs, but we believed that delivering a 6-star customer experience required more care, empathy, and accountability than the typical outsourced model allows.

We wanted to go the extra mile: calling vets on behalf of customers, following up on pet recoveries, even sending flowers when the worst happened.

Owning the full claims journey also gave us access to all the underlying data and user flows, which proved critical when we began integrating AI and automation. It allowed us to build smart, customer-centric processes from day one—cutting friction where it didn’t belong and investing in human care where it did.

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You recently raised $15M, bringing your total to $36M. What are investors seeing in your company and the sector that is getting them excited?

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Investors are seeing a combination of things: a massive market opportunity, a broken status quo, and a team executing with precision while being relentlessly focused on customer experience.

Pet insurance is one of the fastest-growing verticals. It’s recession-resilient, vastly underpenetrated, and driven by the humanisation of pets. But most existing players haven’t kept up. They are optimised for price comparison rankings, not protection.

Fundraising over the past two years has been incredibly tough, especially for direct-to-consumer and insurtech businesses. What gave us an edge was discipline. From day one, we prioritised sustainable growth over growth at all costs, with a clear path to profitability.

What also resonated with investors was our ambition: to deliver the best pet insurance on the market today, while laying the foundation for a broader pet care ecosystem tomorrow.

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Have you tried any unconventional or creative marketing tactics that worked especially well?

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Yes, our Fight Against Basic campaign was a turning point. We stopped trying to win on comparison sites and instead called out what was broken in the market: policies that excluded dental, behavioural issues, or even certain breeds—leaving pet parents exposed when it mattered most.

But we didn’t stop there. We took our mission into the physical world, creating experiences that strengthen the bond between pets and their owners. Over 5,000 dog parents joined our events, from scent training to play experiences designed to enrich dogs’ lives.

Insurance should be more than a product you turn to when something goes wrong—it should be part of a broader framework that helps pets live healthier, happier lives.

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What is the European landscape like compared to the American landscape?

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The UK has relatively high pet insurance penetration at around 30%, and the Nordic countries are even higher. But the rest of Europe sits below 5%, and the US remains under 3%.

Despite differences in maturity, the underlying issues are remarkably similar: outdated value propositions, underserved customers, and a new generation of pet parents who expect transparency, better coverage, and digital-first experiences.

In the US, there’s also a devastating lack of awareness. Many people don’t even know pet insurance exists until it’s too late—leading to economic euthanasia, which affects an estimated one million pets a year.

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What marketing channels or strategies have been most effective for growing your business?

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Diversifying across channels has been crucial. Word of mouth has been particularly impactful—one of our super-referrers has introduced over 1,400 pets to Napo.

We’ve also built strong relationships with veterinarians and focused heavily on authentic storytelling. Pet parents want reassurance, not just policies. That emotional trust has driven both conversion and long-term retention.

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What does your team look like today?

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We are a team of 65 spanning customer operations, product, engineering, pricing, and marketing. Our team includes talent from Meta, Babylon Health, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Marshmallow, ManyPets, PetPlan, and Covea.

This mix of Big Tech, InsurTech, and traditional insurance experience allows us to move fast while staying deeply customer-centric.

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What advice would you share with other aspiring pet industry entrepreneurs?

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First, build something real. Don’t chase hype. Start with the unmet need and work backward.

Second, respect the emotional dimension of this space. Pets are family. Trust is everything.

Third, take care of yourself. Building a company is relentless. Your team and culture will be your anchor—invest in them early. It’s not just about building a great company. It’s about building a great life too.

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