London-based beauty and wellness platform Fresha has secured $80 million in new growth funding from funds managed by KKR. The deal values the company at over $1 billion, makes it a unicorn, and brings its total funding to $285.8 million.
- Founded in 2015 by William Zeqiri and Nick Miller, Fresha builds tools for appointment-based service businesses such as salons, spas, barbershops, and wellness studios.
- The firm develops cloud-based software that handles bookings, payments, client records, staff scheduling, marketing, and inventory management. Alongside this, it runs a consumer-facing marketplace where people can search for and book local beauty and wellness services, with payments processed through the same system.
- The platform is used in more than 120 countries, with a reported network of over 130,000 businesses and around 500,000 professionals. It processes over 35 million appointments per month, creating a large global booking infrastructure for the self-care industry.
- Operationally, Fresha combines SaaS and marketplace functions in one system: businesses use its software to run day-to-day operations while also being listed for discovery and booking by consumers. It also integrates with external channels like Instagram, Facebook, and Google to help businesses receive bookings directly from those platforms, which then flow into its backend management and payments system.
- The company is headquartered in London and operates internationally with offices in cities including New York, Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Sydney, Singapore, and Dubai.
Details of the deal
- With the fresh capital, Fresha plans to expand into new international markets and accelerate the development of its AI-powered features. The funding will also be used to strengthen its platform for businesses and customers, improve operational tools, and support continued global scaling of its booking and payments ecosystem.
