Fresha raises $100 million to fuel continued growth and expands in Europe
June 11th, 2021
June 11, 2021 // 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.
While the UK is Fresha’s largest market, the company has active users across all EU: they don't restrict geo availability, 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. Fresha is currently hiring to double the headcount of its product development team. Fresha is establishing a commercial presence in Paris to meet growing demand for Fresha across EU
“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.
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.
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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 Partech
Born in San Francisco and Paris, Partech is one of the most active VCs in the world, bringing together capital, operational experience and strategic support for entrepreneurs at seed, venture and growth stages. In 2020, Partech invested in 82 startups across 24 countries in Europe, America, Africa and Asia, and generated US$ 1.3B in aggregate exit value.
Media Contacts
Fresha
Victoria Garcia Barker
Partech
Isabelle Tresson
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