Beauty booking startup Fresha reaches $1 billion valuation with KKR backing

Fresha, the beauty and wellness booking marketplace, 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 has the distinction of coming from KKR’s growth equity arm, which targets companies with proven business models that are still in aggressive expansion mode — a sign that Fresha is seen as past the risky early stages and ready to scale.

The London-based company, which was founded in 2015, has grown significantly over the past few years. When TechCrunch covered Fresha Fundraising tour In 2021, the company had 60,000 companies on its platform and He worked with More than 150,000 professionals in 120 countries. Today, the platform includes more than 140,000 companies He says these companies book more than 35 million appointments a month through Fresha. This scale — more than a billion appointments annually — places it among the largest scheduling platforms of any kind, and not just in the beauty and wellness space.

The company has now raised $285 million to date and says it will use the new capital to expand into more countries and develop AI features.