Chewy, Inc.
Pet E-commerce / Online RetailFounded 2011- Updated July 2025
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Last reviewed: July 2025
CorpDigest
Chewy, Inc.
Company History
Founded 2011 in Plantation, Florida
Last reviewed: 2025-07-15 · By Swet Parvadiya
The Connect with a Vet telehealth service, launched in 2020, provides 24/7 virtual veterinary consultations for a fee, creating a recurring services revenue stream and driving prescription capture. The Chewy+ membership program, launched in 2024, offers free shipping, exclusive discounts, and priority customer service for an annual fee — similar to Amazon Prime but pet-specific. MrChewy.com launched in 2011 from Dania Beach, Florida, a working-class suburb of Fort Lauderdale with no venture capital ecosystem, no tech talent pipeline, and no e-commerce infrastructure. Ryan Cohen and Michael Day launched MrChewy.com from Dania Beach, Florida with a simple premise: sell pet food online the way Zappos sold shoes — obsessive customer service, easy returns, reliable fulfillment.
Ryan Cohen is a Canadian-American entrepreneur and investor who founded Chewy in 2011 at age 25. Growing up in South Florida, Cohen learned entrepreneurship from his father, a glassware importer who taught him that the best decisions come from intuition. Cohen dropped out of college to build websites and run affiliate marketing businesses, meeting his future co-founder Michael Day in an internet chat room focused on programming. In 2011, Cohen and Day initially pursued an online jewelry business but pivoted to pet supplies after Cohen realized his personal passion for the category, inspired by his poodle Tylee and a trusted local pet store owner. They launched MrChewy.com from Dania Beach, Florida, with minimal capital and no venture backing. Cohen's leadership was defined by a fanatical commitment to customer service — he insisted on 24/7 phone support with real humans, sent handwritten notes to customers, and personally intervened in customer complaints. This service culture, while expensive, created loyalty that enabled Chewy to outspend competitors on customer acquisition while maintaining industry-leading retention. Revenue grew from $26 million in 2012 to $901 million in 2016. In 2017, Cohen negotiated the $3.35 billion sale to PetSmart, the largest e-commerce acquisition in history at that time. He stepped down as CEO in March 2018 and later built a reputation as an activist investor, acquiring stakes in GameStop, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Nordstrom. In 2023, he was named CEO of GameStop. Forbes estimates his net worth at $3.2 billion.
Michael Day co-founded Chewy with Ryan Cohen in 2011 and served as the company's Chief Technology Officer. Day met Cohen in an internet chat room as a teenager, bonding over shared interests in website design and programming. While Cohen focused on customer service, brand, and investor relations, Day built the technical infrastructure that enabled Chewy's explosive growth. He architected the e-commerce platform from scratch, designed the inventory management system that supported the transition from third-party logistics to in-house fulfillment, and developed the data pipeline that powered Chewy's personalization and Autoship algorithms. Day's technical decisions — including the choice to build custom systems rather than rely on off-the-shelf e-commerce platforms — gave Chewy flexibility and scalability that competitors lacked. He remained with the company through the PetSmart acquisition and IPO, though he maintained a lower public profile than Cohen. Day's engineering culture emphasized reliability, speed, and data-driven decision-making — principles that continue to shape Chewy's technology organization.
Ryan Cohen and Michael Day founded MrChewy.com in Dania Beach, Florida, pivoting from an initial jewelry e-commerce concept to pet supplies. The company started with three people, a call center, and inventory purchased from a local distributor.
Larry Cheng of Volition Capital invested $15 million in Chewy's Series A after initially passing six to nine months earlier. The capital funded Chewy's first in-house fulfillment center in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, a 400,000-square-foot facility leased with no prior logistics experience.
Chewy opened its second fulfillment center in Reno, Nevada, achieving nationwide coverage. Revenue reached $205 million in 2014, up from $26 million in 2012, as the company scaled its direct-response marketing and customer service operations.
Chewy generated $423 million in revenue in 2015, becoming one of the fastest-growing e-commerce companies in the United States. The company expanded its product catalog to over 30,000 items and built a customer service team of hundreds.
Chewy reached $901 million in revenue in 2016, with approximately 3 million active customers. The company opened additional fulfillment centers and invested heavily in customer service infrastructure, including 24/7 phone support and personalized outreach.
PetSmart, owned by private equity firm BC Partners, acquired Chewy for $3.35 billion in cash — the largest e-commerce acquisition in history at the time. The deal provided BC Partners with a high-growth digital asset to complement PetSmart's brick-and-mortar network.
Ryan Cohen stepped down as CEO in March 2018. Sumit Singh, who joined Chewy from Amazon in 2017 as COO, was promoted to CEO. Singh had previously led Amazon's worldwide fresh and grocery business.
Chewy went public on the New York Stock Exchange on June 14, 2019, pricing its IPO at $22 per share and raising $1.02 billion. The stock surged 59% on the first day of trading, achieving an $8.8 billion valuation. PetSmart retained majority voting control through Class B shares.
Chewy benefited from COVID-19-driven e-commerce acceleration, with active customers surging as pet adoption rates increased. The company launched Connect with a Vet, a 24/7 telehealth service, expanding into pet health services.
Chewy generated $8.89 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2021, up 24.6% year-over-year, as pandemic-era pet ownership and online shopping habits solidified. Autoship penetration exceeded 70% of net sales.
Chewy achieved GAAP profitability in FY2022 with net income of $49.9 million on $10.12 billion in revenue. The company demonstrated that its growth-at-all-costs model could transition to sustainable profitability through Autoship operating leverage.
FY2023 revenue reached $11.15 billion with adjusted EBITDA of $445 million at a 4.0% margin. The company expanded private-label penetration and optimized fulfillment costs while maintaining customer growth.
FY2024 net sales were $11.86 billion with gross margin expanding to 29.2%. Net income was $392.7 million, and the company generated $596.3 million in operating cash flow. Chewy Vet Care opened its first clinics.
FY2025 net sales reached $12.60 billion with adjusted EBITDA of $719.2 million (5.7% margin) and record free cash flow of $562.4 million. Chewy Vet Care opened 10 new practices, reaching 18 locations. The company repurchased 6.8 million shares for $257 million.
In April 2026, Chewy announced the acquisition of Modern Animal, a technology-forward veterinary platform with 29 owned clinics, expanding Chewy Vet Care from 18 to 47 locations and adding over $125 million in annualized run-rate revenue.
In April 2026, Chewy announced the acquisition of Modern Animal, a technology-forward veterinary platform with 29 owned clinics across the United States, primarily concentrated in California. The acquisition accelerates Chewy's evolution from a pet product retailer into a fully integrated pet healthcare ecosystem. Modern Animal brings a modern technology stack, a membership-based veterinary care model, and a customer base of premium pet owners who align with Chewy's demographic. The deal expands Chewy Vet Care from 18 to 47 locations and adds over $125 million in annualized run-rate revenue.
While technically an acquisition of Chewy by PetSmart rather than by Chewy, the $3.35 billion cash transaction in April 2017 was the defining corporate event in Chewy's history. PetSmart, owned by private equity firm BC Partners, acquired Chewy to secure a high-growth digital asset that could offset declining brick-and-mortar traffic. The deal provided Chewy with the capital to complete its national fulfillment network and fund customer acquisition at scale.
Chewy was founded in June 2011 in Plantation, Florida by Ryan Cohen and Michael Day, applying customer service-focused e-commerce model to pet products that had been dominated by physical pet retailers Petsmart and Petco. The strategic insight emphasized personalised customer service (handwritten cards, sympathy cards for pet deaths, dedicated customer service representatives), competitive pricing, free shipping over $49, and broad pet product selection that physical retailers couldn't match. Cohen's customer-obsessed approach created intense customer loyalty driving rapid growth from $5 million revenue (2012) to $2 billion (2017) — extraordinary 100%+ annual growth establishing Chewy as dominant pet e-commerce platform. PetSmart acquired Chewy in 2017 for $3.35 billion (then largest e-commerce acquisition ever), recognizing Chewy's competitive threat to traditional pet retail and seeking to monetize the disruption rather than compete directly.
PetSmart's $3.35 billion acquisition of Chewy in May 2017 was funded by private equity firm BC Partners (which had taken PetSmart private in 2014), with strategic logic combining PetSmart's physical retail presence with Chewy's e-commerce strength. The acquisition initially generated complex operational and financial relationships including PetSmart spinning off Chewy as separate public company through IPO in June 2019 at $22 per share (raising $1 billion at $9 billion valuation). PetSmart retained approximately 70% of Chewy ownership post-IPO, with BC Partners ultimately controlling combined PetSmart-Chewy investment structure. The IPO and subsequent ownership changes through 2019-2024 have evolved, with Chewy operating as independent public company while maintaining various operational relationships with PetSmart. Stock has experienced significant volatility from $120+ peak (2021) to $20s lows (2023) before recovery, reflecting e-commerce industry valuation pressures and operational performance.
Chewy benefited substantially from COVID-19 pandemic with revenue growth from $4.8 billion (2019) to $8.9 billion (2021) as pandemic stay-at-home patterns drove pet ownership increases (US pet population grew 6-8% during 2020-2021) and accelerated e-commerce adoption across all retail categories including pet supplies. The pandemic-driven growth supported rapid customer base expansion to 19+ million active customers, infrastructure investment supporting operational scale, and various strategic initiatives benefiting from favorable conditions. However, post-COVID normalisation through 2022-2024 has moderated growth dramatically (revenue stabilising around $11-12 billion) as new pet ownership rates declined and e-commerce growth normalized. Chewy's operational scale and customer relationships built during COVID era support continued operations though growth rate transition required strategic adaptation including operational efficiency focus, autoship program emphasis, and various profitability improvements.
Chewy has expanded beyond traditional pet products including Chewy Pharmacy (prescription pet medications, growing to $1+ billion revenue), Chewy Health (veterinary services through Chewy Vet Care telehealth and various health initiatives), pet insurance partnerships, and various other adjacent categories supporting comprehensive pet care platform. Strategic expansion targets higher-margin services beyond commoditised pet food and supplies, plus deeper customer relationships through health and veterinary services creating switching costs. Chewy Vet Care telehealth launched in 2022, providing veterinary consultations through video and chat, addressing veterinary access challenges plus generating premium service revenue. Future expansion includes potential physical clinic operations, expanded pharmacy services, and various other service categories supporting customer retention and lifetime value. The strategy reflects pet ownership economics where comprehensive services support higher customer lifetime values than pure product transactions.
Chewy opened Chewy Pharmacy in July 2018, roughly a year after PetSmart's $3.35 billion July 2017 acquisition closed and eleven months before the June 2019 Chewy IPO at $22, becoming one of the first national online retailers licensed across all 50 state pharmacy boards to dispense both compounded and FDA-approved pet medications. The pharmacy started with prescription flea, tick, and heartworm preventatives and grew to cover more than 4,000 SKUs including chronic-condition therapies for arthritis, diabetes, and heart disease, leveraging the Autoship subscription model that already covered roughly 70 percent of Chewy's product revenue. In 2022 the company expanded into Chewy CarePlus pet insurance through a partnership with Trupanion, and in March 2024 it announced the first standalone Chewy Vet Care clinics, opening the inaugural location in Plantation, Florida near the original Dania Beach headquarters where co-founders Ryan Cohen and Michael Day launched the company in 2011. The Vet Care concept combines primary-care veterinary visits with on-site pharmacy fulfillment and grooming and is positioned as a direct competitive response to Mars-owned Banfield's roughly 1,000 clinics inside PetSmart and standalone chains like NVA and BluePearl. CEO Sumit Singh, who has led Chewy since March 2018, frames the vertical buildout as a way to lift average revenue per active customer beyond fiscal 2024 levels by capturing more of the estimated $35 billion US veterinary-services market on top of pet food and supplies.