Home › Why Smartemis
In recent years, traditional veterinary consolidation has produced disappointing outcomes for vets, patients, and investors alike. Smartemis was built to offer a structurally superior alternative — one that aligns the interests of everyone it serves.
The Problem
Independent veterinary clinics are best run by the people who built them.
✕Keeping vets engaged after a sale
When clinic owners sell to a consolidator, they become employees of the group. The motivation that drives clinical excellence — ownership pride, local reputation, personal accountability — can fade, with knock-on effects on staff retention and patient experience.
✕Decisions made far from the local market
A regional management layer between the clinic and the investor can slow decisions and blur incentives. Pricing, staffing, and clinical-investment calls risk being made by people who don’t see patients — and who manage dozens of clinics at once.
✕Margin pressure on the clinic
Acquisition debt has to be serviced, and that creates pressure to cut costs — in staffing, equipment, and time per patient — which can undermine the quality that made the clinic valuable in the first place.
✕Hidden concentration risk
When many clinics are run under the same central model, they share the same risks. Revenue can be more correlated than it appears, and the diversification benefit of a large portfolio smaller than expected.
The Smartemis Model
Smartemis does not buy clinics. It provides shared infrastructure, services, and purchasing power to independent clinic owners that empower growth and margin improvement— in exchange for a service fee. Clinics remain legally, operationally, and brand-independently owned by the veterinarian who built them.
01
No acquisition. The vet retains control of their clinic and its assets. Smartemis takes a minority stake in each partner clinic and provides its services under a long-term partnership agreement; its return combines a service fee with a priority share of clinic revenue.
02
Practice-management systems, recruiting and HR support, financial advisory, marketing, collective purchasing via Tradelios, and change management — services the clinic couldn’t economically source alone.
03
Revenue comes from services delivered, not from clinic margin. This aligns Smartemis’s commercial interest with clinic growth — not with cost extraction.
04
Purchasing leverage, knowledge sharing, and peer referral all increase with community size. Each new clinic adds more value than the last — a genuine network effect.
05
Half the board are elected practicing veterinarians. Strategic decisions reflect clinical reality, not just financial optimization.
06
Community growth requires no M&A outlay. The marginal cost of adding a clinic is a fraction of acquisition-based models — which is why the growth rate is economically sustainable.
Independence
The independence of clinics in the Smartemis community is not a positioning statement — it is a legal and operational reality that distinguishes Smartemis in the market.
For regulators and policymakers
Each clinic in the network retains control over its own clinical and operational decision-making, pricing, operating licence, employment relationships, and regulatory obligations. Smartemis holds only a minority ownership interest in any clinic. This structure is designed to preserve the benefits of independent veterinary practice — clinical autonomy, local accountability, and the owner-operator model that produces the highest quality of care — while giving practices access to the infrastructure and expertise that large corporate groups use as a competitive advantage.
“Quite ingenious how Smartemis has set it up. The independence is genuine — which is what makes the regulatory position so clean.”
Governance
Half the Smartemis board are practicing veterinarians, elected by their peers from partner clinics. This is not a token gesture — Smartemis brings together independent veterinarians, experienced industry experts and PE portfolio company veterans to leverage synergies that unlock growth and create value.
Elected practicing veterinarian
4 of 8
Board members are practicing vets
Elected by their peers from within the community. Not appointed by management or investors.
“The governance structure is what convinced me. Vets have a genuine seat at the table here — not a symbolic one. When we vote, it counts.”
Dr Marcus Stieger — Veterinarian & Clinic Owner
“I joined because Smartemis was built by someone who actually understands what it means to run a veterinary clinic. That shows in every decision they make.”
Dr Thorsten Fröhlich — Veterinarian, Network Partner
Impact
Smartemis was designed from the outset to produce outcomes that are good for vets, good for patients, and good for the communities that depend on accessible, high-quality veterinary care.
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Community clinics retain clinical autonomy. Vets make treatment decisions based on patient need — not on margin targets set by a distant management team. The Smartemis governance structure includes animal welfare as a board-level commitment.
132 Partner clinics committed to independent clinical standards
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Smartemis supports career development, succession planning, and the pathway from employed vet to clinic co-owner – enabling clinic ownership and control to remain in the hands of local veterinary professionals – both now and in the future.
585 Veterinarians across the community
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Rural and suburban clinics that struggle to attract staff or survive commercially as standalone practices gain access to the infrastructure of a large network while retaining their local identity and community relationships.
1,500+ Nurses and collaborators supported across the community
Smartemis AG, Morgartenstrasse 9, 6003 Lucerne, Switzerland. Incorporated under Swiss law. Network operations in Germany and France.
Get in Touch
We’d love to get acquainted and tell you more about what we’re building. Reach out and let’s start the conversation.
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