Gumtree has introduced pet insurance to its online marketplace, via a partnership with PetSure brand petinsurance.com.au.

Gumtree says it has 1.5 million unique users a month within its pets vertical, and featured 700,000 pet-related listings last year.

Despite 69% of Australian households having a pet, just 17% of dog owners and 12% of cat owners have pet insurance.

“Higher pet ownership has driven record activity on the platform, with more people looking to buy and sell pet services,” Gumtree Group CEO Tommy Logtenberg said.

“Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Gumtree has helped over half a million dogs and cats find their forever homes, with the pets vertical being the fastest growing category for the past two years.

“In response to this category growth, we wanted to provide users with a more complete pet offering, and to help them consider pet insurance as part of being a responsible pet parent. With PetSure’s distribution model, we saw a strategic opportunity to partner with petinsurance.com.au to bring this to life.

“We have a laser focus on growing the pets vertical, and we’re confident our petinsurance.com.au partnership will unlock growth in this space.”

Natalie Carpenter, Head of Affinity Partnerships at petinsurance.com.au, says the partnership represents an opportunity to reach new audiences. 

“This year we've seen a growing trend of Australian businesses entering the pet market, or diversifying their existing pet offering, whether that’s within pet retail, online pharmacy or in Gumtree’s case – pet insurance.

“As Australia’s largest online pet marketplace and a household name, we’re delighted to expand our distribution network with Gumtree.”

The underwriter for petinsurance.com.au is Hollard.