NEW YORK, June 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Fresha, a top
beauty and wellness software platform, announced today a
$100 million Series C investment led
by General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm, with
strategic participation from Huda
Kattan of HB Investments and the founder of Huda Beauty, as
well as Michael Zeisser of FMZ
Ventures, former Chairman Investments at Alibaba Group, and
Jonathan Green of Lugard Road
Capital. Fresha's existing global investors Partech, Target Global
and FJ Labs also participated in the round, bringing the company's
total fundraising to $132 million to
date. 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.
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 Fresha platform removes the critical pain points that
service-based businesses often encounter by seamlessly facilitating
the acceptance of online appointment bookings, processing of card
payments and management of customer records, along with automations
for marketing, staffing, product inventory and accounting, all in
one place. In addition to its free offering, Fresha Plus provides
partners with additional advanced features; rather than a
traditional subscription model, the company collects fees on the
usage of features for card payment processing and online
bookings.
Fresha has amassed an extensive base of approximately 50,000
partner venues primarily spanning the
United States, United
Kingdom, Canada,
Australia, New Zealand and Europe. In April
2021 alone, the company added over 4,000 new venues. The
Fresha platform is used in 120 countries globally, and each month,
customers book tens of millions of appointments on the platform,
processing nearly $12 billion in
value to date. Fresha's focus on building easy-to-use, free
software and offering business tools without any subscription fees,
underpinned by a strong word-of-mouth effect, has helped the
company build a loyal following and customer base. 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.
"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."
"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 Co-Founder 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 bookings and automated
marketing initiatives. Fresha's technology optimizes appointment
bookings with real-time online availability and boosts local
discovery, helping partner salons grow sales," he said.
"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."
Huda Kattan shared her excitement
at investing in the company: "I've witnessed first-hand the
positive impact Fresha has for beauty entrepreneurs. The company is
a force for good in the growing community of beauty professionals
around the globe, who are increasingly adopting a self-employed
approach. By making top business software accessible without any
subscription fees, Fresha lets professionals focus on what they do
best — offering great experiences for their customers."
"We believe 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.
Previously, Fresha raised Series B investment from Paris-based Partech, along with Series A and
Seed investments from Dubai-based
MEVP. Launched in 2015 and with headquarters in London, the company is backed by investors
from New York City, Silicon Valley
and Europe.
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. 50,000
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
providing capital and strategic support for growth companies.
Established in 1980, General Atlantic 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 build market-leading
businesses worldwide. General Atlantic has more than 175 investment
professionals based in New York,
Amsterdam, Beijing, Greenwich, Hong
Kong, Jakarta, London, Mexico
City, Mumbai, Munich, Palo
Alto, São Paulo, Shanghai,
and Singapore. For more
information on General Atlantic, please visit the website:
www.generalatlantic.com.
About Huda Kattan
Huda Kattan is chairwoman HB
Investments (HBI), the private investment office of the founders of
Huda Beauty: Huda (Chairwoman), Mona
(President), Alya Kattan,
Christopher Goncalo and is led by
CEO Karan Wats. HBI invests in
visionary entrepreneurs that share a common desire to build
world-class consumer brands while creating meaningful impact;
paring entrepreneurs with a brand building, marketing, PR and
distribution ecosystem to help them unleash their magic. Going
beyond traditional investment partnerships, HBI also runs a
comprehensive incubator program called HB Angels, which provides
seed funding and a brand-building ecosystem to a carefully selected
group of in-house entrepreneurs. With a robust team of top
marketing, PR, operations and supply chain talent, HBI is
co-creating businesses that can change the world for the
better.
Photo:
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