KKR backs beauty booking platform Fresha in $80 million round

Fresha, a beauty and wellness booking marketplace, has secured an $80 million investment from KKR’s Next Generation Technology Growth fund. The transaction values the London-based company at more than $1 billion, officially granting it a unicorn valuation. The investment is notable for coming from KKR’s growth equity arm, which is an investment strategy targeting companies with proven business models in expansion mode. By securing this backing, Fresha demonstrates that it is considered to be past its risky early stages and is now ready to scale its operations. This funding will help the company transition from its early growth phase into a larger competitor operating across more countries.

The company has scaled significantly since its founding in 2015. For comparison, during a previous fundraising round in 2021, the platform supported 60,000 businesses and worked with more than 150,000 professionals across 120 countries. Since that 2021 round, the platform has expanded its reach significantly, and its operational metrics include:

• 140,000 businesses currently on the platform.
• 35 million appointments booked per month.
• An annual appointment volume of more than a billion.

This volume puts Fresha among the larger scheduling platforms of any kind, not just within beauty and wellness. The platform’s ability to process more than a billion appointments annually highlights its scale relative to other scheduling services in the market.

With $285 million raised to date, Fresha plans to use the new capital to expand to more countries and develop AI features. This capital injection will support the company’s ongoing expansion plans and technological development as it seeks to grow its platform.

Why it matters

The investment from KKR’s growth equity arm signals that Fresha is seen as past the risky early stages and ready to scale.