Beauty and wellness booking marketplace Fresha has announced an $80 million investment from KKR's Next Generation Technology Growth Fund, valuing the London-based company at more than $1 billion. This investment is notable because it comes from KKR's Growth Equity division. The division targets companies with proven business models that are still in aggressive expansion mode. This is a sign that Fresha is considered to be past its high-risk early stage and ready for scale.
The London-based company was founded in 2015 and has grown significantly over the past few years. When TechCrunch covered Fresha's funding round in 2021, the company had 60,000 businesses on its platform and was working with more than 150,000 professionals in 120 countries. The platform currently has more than 140,000 registered businesses, which say they book more than 35 million bookings a month through Fresha. Its volume, more than 1 billion appointments per year, makes it one of the larger scheduling platforms of all kinds, not just in the beauty and health space.
The company has raised $285 million to date and says it will use the new funding to expand into more countries and develop its AI capabilities.