Yahoo Finance Spa Software Fresha Raises $100M From Huda Kattan, General Atlantic
General Atlantic has led a $100 million Series C round for salon and spa software Fresha. Huda Kattan, founder of Huda Beauty and HB Ventures, also participated in the round.
Fresha, founded in 2015, offers subscription-free software to the salon industry that allows for online appointment booking, payment processing and record management. Instead of subscriptions, the company collects fees on usage features, like card payment processing.
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Kattan said in a statement that she’s “witnessed firsthand the positive impact Fresha has for beauty entrepreneurs” and that the company is “a force for good in the growing community of beauty professionals around the world, who are increasingly adopting a self-employed approach.”
Michael Zeisser of FMZ Ventures, the former chairman of investments at Alibaba, and Jonathan Green of Lugard Road Capital also invested in the round, as did existing investors Partech Target Global and FJ Labs. In total, Fresha has raised $132 million.
Fresha plans to use the latest round of capital to build out its salon community, scale product development, deepen bookings and pursue M&A, the company said in a statement. Right now, the company has about 50,000 partners using the software in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. To date, Fresha has processed about $12 billion in salon and spa appointments payments, and that it’s quickly adding new salons to its network.
“The rapid growth we’re seeing comes down to having happy customers that love using Fresha,” said Fresha founder and chief executive officer 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.”
Zegiri said that in May, Fresha saw a 30-fold increase in the volume of card payments processed on the platform, compared to the year prior.
“Legacy software offerings for beauty and wellness businesses are often expensive to purchase and difficult to use. Salons face obstacles with inefficient scheduling, resulting in low occupancy and lost sales,” said Nick Miller, Fresha’s cofounder and chief of product. “More than ever, beauty and wellness businesses are opting to grow sales by leveraging tools to facilitate online payments, self-service booking and automated marketing initiatives. Fresha’s technology optimizes appointment bookings with real-time online availability and boosts local discovery, helping partner salons grow sales.”
General Atlantic’s Aaron Goldman, global co-head of financial services and managing director, said Fresha has “significant opportunity to further scale.” Partech’s Philippe Collombel, general partner, said Fresha “outpaces the competition.”
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