Huda Backs Beauty and Wellness Booking Startup Fresha to Raise $100 Million

A woman receiving a mud mask treatment.

Fresha, a beauty and wellness startup company founded in 2015 under the name Shedul, announced today it secured $100 million in fresh business capital. The Series C business funding round was led by venture capital (VC) company General Atlantic, while Huda Kattan — the founder of Huda Beauty — also participated in the funding.

Booking.com for Beauty and Spa Appointments

FMZ Ventures, Lugard Road Capital, Partech, Target Global, and FJ Labs also participated in the round. Before this round, the beauty and wellness startup company closed a Series B business funding round from Partech, and Series A and seed funding from the Dubai-based MEVP. The startup has raised $132 million in business funding in the past six years.

“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.

Consumers can use Fresha’s marketplace to book beauty and wellness appointments, while salons, spa centers, and barbershops use the software developed by the London-based startup to manage their business operations.

Fresha is famous for its easy-to-use platform that offers consumers a seamless experience for booking appointments online, including automations for marketing, staffing, product inventory, and accounting to ultimately serve as a one-stop-shop.

The upgraded platform — Fresha Plus — offers additional features for those willing to pay more. The startup company makes money by charging fees for the usage of features that allow card payment processing and online bookings.

At the moment, the beauty and wellness company has roughly 50,000 partner venues across the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. Fresha added more than 4,000 venues in April only, with its platform being used in 120 countries around the globe.

Data shows that tens of millions of appointments are booked on Fresha’s platform each month, and to date, the platform has processed almost $12 billion in appointments.

“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,” Zeqiri added.

Huda Kattan, founder of the cosmetics line Huda Beauty and one of the investors in this business funding round, noted the positive impact that the London-based startup company makes on beauty and wellness entrepreneurs.

She said Fresha represents a “force for good in the growing community of beauty professionals around the globe” who continue to adopt a self-employed approach. The founder of Huda Beauty said Fresha’s decision to offer its top platform for free allows beauty professionals to provide great experiences to business customers.

Summary

Beauty and wellness startup company Fresha raised $100 million in a recent series business funding round, led by General Atlantic and with the participation of Huda Beauty founder Huda Kattan. The booking company has reached great business success thanks to its easy-to-use, free platform. By not having subscription fees, the startup has built a massive and loyal customer base across the globe.

Adriaan Brits

As an analyst of global affairs, Adriaan has an MSC from Oxford, with diverse interests in the digital economy, entertainment, and business. He is a specialist trainer in Advanced Analytics & Media.

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