NEW YORK, Dec. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Fresha, a leading platform for beauty and wellness, announced today over $52 million in additional investment extending the company’s recent $100 million Series C round led by General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm, to over $152 million and valuing the company at over $640 million. The extension investment was led by Michael Lahyani and BECO Capital, and also included new contributions from Fresha’s existing investors General Atlantic, Partech, Target Global and FMZ Ventures. The company has raised $182M in investment to date, and will put the new capital to use by further expanding its global community of partner salons and spas, with the goal of accelerating product development and driving marketplace bookings.
Fresha enables consumers to discover, book and pay for beauty and wellness appointments with local businesses via its marketplace, while simultaneously offering salons, spas, barbershops and beauty professionals an all-in-one platform to manage their entire operations with its intuitive free business software and financial technology solutions. Fresha’s digital ecosystem gives merchants everything they need to run their business efficiently and seamlessly by facilitating appointment bookings, point-of-sale, customer records management, marketing automation, loyalty, beauty products inventory and team management.
Fresha has provided the beauty and wellness industry with a unique model of providing free business software. This approach has helped to eliminate the friction for small business owners to join the digital revolution en masse and to engage and transact with their clients online. Fresha has seen unprecedented growth since the COVID-19 pandemic as businesses looked to bring their operations online and maximise their revenues by acquiring new customers through the platform’s consumer marketplace.
Fresha’s product-led strategy has enabled it to become one of the market leaders in the industry, growing its merchant base primarily through word-of-mouth. Fresha has amassed an extensive base of approximately 60,000 merchant venues, primarily located in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. The platform is used in 120 countries globally and each month, customers book tens of millions of appointments on the platform, processing over $15 billion in gross merchandise volume to date.
“We believe that professionals like barbers, stylists and therapists should be able to focus on their craft without having to worry about the daily hassles of running their businesses,” said Fresha Co-Founder and Chief of Product Nick Miller. “We’re committed to providing the very best product with a seamless customer experience at the lowest price point.”
“Our ecosystem proposition differs from the more traditional incumbent software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers that focus on a single offering,” said Fresha Founder and CEO William Zeqiri. “Business owners once had to utilize fragmented tools that attempt to solve operational challenges piecemeal; a business might use MailChimp for marketing, Wix for their website, Shopify to sell beauty products online, Square for payment processing, and other tools for calendar management and marketing. Our mission is to be the go-to one-stop-shop solution that addresses each and every pain point for the industry holistically, with an overarching vision to help connect the world to beauty and wellness.”
This unique approach is what excites Fresha’s investors. “Fresha has positioned itself as a major player in the beauty and wellness industry with a large and loyal customer base,” said Aaron Goldman, Global Co-Head of Financial Services and Managing Director at General Atlantic, in a statement. “We strongly believe in Fresha’s balanced strategy of providing one of the best products in the market at no cost to salons and then driving monetization via payments and value-added services.”
About Fresha
Fresha is a leading global beauty and wellness platform. Each month, tens of millions of appointments are discovered, booked and paid with partner salons, spas and barbershops on Fresha. Approximately 60,000 partner venues in over 120 countries use the platform to manage their operations with Fresha’s intuitive, full-spectrum, subscription-free business software. Fresha transforms beauty and wellness business operations by enabling the acceptance of online appointment bookings, processing of card payments and managing customer records, along with automations for marketing, staffing, product inventory and accounting, all in one place. Launched in 2015 originally under the name Shedul, the company rebranded to Fresha in 2020. For more information, visit www.fresha.com, download Fresha on the App Store and Google Play or follow Fresha on Facebook and Instagram.
About General Atlantic
General Atlantic is a leading global growth equity firm with more than four decades of experience providing capital and strategic support for over 445 growth companies throughout its history. Established in 1980 to partner with visionary entrepreneurs and deliver lasting impact, the firm combines a collaborative global approach, sector specific expertise, a long-term investment horizon and a deep understanding of growth drivers to partner with great entrepreneurs and management teams to scale innovative businesses around the world. General Atlantic currently has over $86 billion in assets under management inclusive of all products as of September 30, 2021, and more than 215 investment professionals based in New York, Amsterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Munich, Palo Alto, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore and Stamford.
For more information on General Atlantic, please visit the website: www.generalatlantic.com.
About Michael Lahyani
Michael Lahyani is a serial entrepreneur and technology investor. He is the Founder and CEO Property Finder, a leading property portal that facilitates the house-hunting journey for both buyers and renters.
About BECO Capital
BECO Capital is a venture capital firm that provides early-stage growth capital and hands-on operational support for technology companies, founded by innovative entrepreneurs that are creating transformational solutions that solve large regional problems. Its team brings a rich and diverse experience in venture capital, technology, entrepreneurship and finance, triggering value creation across all the business and operational functions of portfolio companies. This includes helping them to expand to new markets across the region, acquire key talent, implement operational improvements, adopt corporate governance practices and raise further growth capital. https://becocapital.com/
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