Shedul.com raises new investment funding

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Apr 12, 2019

Shedul.com, a booking software for beauty salons and spas, has raised $20 million in a Series B funding round led by investment firm Partech, Berlin-based Target Global, Dubai’s Beco Capital and NYC-based FJ Labs.

The London-based startup said the investment gave the company a $105 million valuation. Additionally, the round included personal investments from entrepreneur Niklas Östberg, founder and CEO of Delivery Hero. To date, Schedul.com has raised a total of $32 million.

It claims to be the “world’s fastest-growing beauty booking platform”, and its stats support its reputation. Founded in 2015, the firm has a customer base of merchants in over 120 countries, mainly in the US, the UK, Australia and Canada. It said 8 million appointments are booked on its platform each month, generating transactions worth over $270m. Meanwhile, growth in active merchants is expanding at an average rate of 20% quarter-on-quarter.

Free to use for beauty salons and spas, the platform allows merchants to schedule appointments, send automated appointment reminders and keep track of customers’ appointment history. Recently the company also launched Fresha.com, which allows customers to book, cancel or reschedule their own appoints online.

Nick Miller, chief of product, said: “We've re-invented the business model by offering our business software totally free of charge, and instead monetise online bookings made through our marketplace. This strategy helps us consolidate the industry, building up a vast global network of merchants for our marketplace. We solved the chicken and egg problem of reaching marketplace liquidity, letting us rapidly scale and monetise the network.”

The fresh funds will be used to support the worldwide rollout of the new Fresha.com platform and accelerate product development.