London-based Fresha is a global beauty and wellness software platform. In a recent development, the company pocketed $100 million (nearly £70 million) in a Series C funding round, thereby bringing the company’s total funding raised to $132 million (nearly £93 million).
Eyes growth!
The investment round was led by General Atlantic along with strategic participation from Huda Kattan of HB Investments and the founder of Huda Beauty, and Michael Zeisser of FMZ Ventures, former Chairman Investments at Alibaba Group, and Jonathan Green of Lugard Road Capital. Also, Fresha’s existing global investors Partech, Target Global and FJ Labs participated in the round,
Fresha will leverage the new funds to further broaden its global community of partner salons and spas, scale product development, deepen its marketplace bookings and pursue strategic M&A.
“From the day we founded Fresha, our core focus has been on offering a solution that delights our customers. That drive has continued to direct our feature development and long-term vision. The rapid growth we’re seeing comes down to having happy customers that love using Fresha,” said Fresha Founder and CEO William Zeqiri. “The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the transition across the globe to online bookings and integrated card payments, now seen as essential to run any modern salon or spa. In May 2021, Fresha saw a thirty-fold increase in the volume of card payments processed on the platform compared to a year earlier.”
“Fresha has emerged as a leader powering the beauty and wellness industry,” said Aaron Goldman, Global Co-Head of Financial Services and Managing Director at General Atlantic. “William, Nick and the Fresha team have built a product that is resonating with the market and creating long-term value through the intersection of its payments, software and marketplace offerings. We are thrilled to be partnering with the company and believe Fresha has significant opportunity to further scale its innovative platform.”
“Fresha outpaces the competition by combining a superior product-market fit with outstanding execution capabilities” said Philippe Collombel, General Partner at Partech. “William and Nick superbly steered Fresha during the COVID-19 pandemic. They have continued to innovate, accelerate signups of new salons, and boost revenues, whilst supporting new venues and small businesses in navigating the crisis. We can’t wait to see Fresha’s continued growth after this new funding round and are thrilled to partner once again with General Atlantic” he said.
Expansion across Europe
Founded by William Zeqiri and Nick Miller in 2015, Fresha allows consumers to discover, book and pay for beauty and wellness appointments with local businesses via its marketplace, while salons, spas and barbershops can leverage Fresha to manage their operations with its intuitive, subscription-free business software.
The company focuses on building easy-to-use, free software and offering business tools without any subscription fees, underpinned by a strong word-of-mouth effect. Fresha’s partner businesses rely on the platform for its ease of use, time-saving benefits and embedded features to grow sales, while end consumers enjoy a premium booking and payment experience.
While the UK is Fresha’s largest market, the company has active users across all EU and the platform is available in 20 local languages. Fresha has a team of over 100 software developers across Europe and UK at its sites in London, Amsterdam, Berlin and Warsaw. Currently, Fresha is hiring to double the headcount of its product development team. Also, it is establishing a commercial presence in Paris to meet the growing demand for Fresha across the EU.
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