The software market for hair salons, beauty institutes and spas continues to be structured around a few platforms capable of industrializing a historically fragmented sector. The British company Fresha announces a raising of 80 million dollars, or approximately 68.9 million euros, from KKR. The operation values the company at more than a billion dollars and confirms the emergence of a new major European player in vertical software dedicated to wellness and beauty.
Founded in 2015, Fresha develops a SaaS platform allowing hair salons, institutes, spas, barbers or fitness centers to manage appointments, payments, subscriptions, customer relations and daily operations. The company claims more than 130,000 user establishments worldwide, more than 35 million monthly appointments and approximately $15 billion in annual business volume passing through its platform.
One of the most noted elements of this operation, however, remains the profitability of the company. Fresha claims to be profitable, with annualized revenue in excess of $140 million and growth of more than 60% per year. In an environment where part of European tech remains under pressure after several years of deficit hypergrowth, this positioning significantly changes the perception of the market.
With this new financing, Fresha now brings the total capital raised since its creation to 299 million dollars, or approximately 257 million euros. A trajectory which gradually brings it closer to the large American vertical platforms combining SaaS, payments and transactional marketplace.
On the French and European market, Fresha operates on terrain similar to that of Planity. Founded in 2017, the French company has established itself as one of the main players in the digitalization of beauty salons. After raising 10 million euros in 2020 then 30 million euros in 2021, Planity announced a new funding round intended to accelerate its European establishment, particularly in Germany and Belgium. The French startup then claimed 37,000 client establishments out of the 140,000 beauty establishments identified in France. Like Fresha, Planity has gradually expanded its positioning beyond simple online booking, integrating payments, gift cards, subscriptions and inventory management. The company also indicated that it had raised more than 100 million euros since its creation in order to finance a large field sales force, with nearly 200 salespeople operating door-to-door.
This proximity between the two players illustrates a broader transformation of the sector. Long considered simple reservation software, these tools are gradually becoming complete transactional infrastructures combining SaaS, fintech and local marketplace.
The subject now goes beyond the simple digitalization of diaries. These platforms seek to control the daily operational flows of salons: customer acquisition, CRM, payments, loyalty, subscriptions, financing, marketing campaigns and now AI automation.
It is precisely this dimension that now attracts large growth and technology private equity funds. In KKR’s case, the bet is based on an already profitable model, heavily integrated into the daily operations of hundreds of thousands of small businesses, with still significant potential for global expansion.
Artificial intelligence is now the next strategic layer. Fresha says it wants to invest heavily in automating operations, optimizing bookings, automated marketing and tools to improve salon occupancy. In a market where margins often remain low and operational costs high, a few additional productivity gains can quickly change the economics of establishments.
