Irish salon software firm Beutifi has acquired rival SalonAddict and is creating 14 new jobs in the process.
Beutifi, which is headed up by former Car Trawler and L’Oreal executives, reported €2m in booking revenues sent to salon customers in 2015.
It forecasts this to grow to €10m in 2016.
The new jobs will be mainly in marketing, sales and development roles.
Customers include salon brands Peter Mark and Style Club, Waxperts, Cowboys & Angels and Hugh Campbell Group.
Surfs and curls
Similar to a platform like JustEat, Beutifi allows consumers to discover the best salons, read reviews and book appointments in real-time.
The company plans to become a major player in the €100m global salon market.
According to Beutifi founder and CEO Richie Spence, Google searches for hair and beauty related services are growing 22pc a year.
However, he estimates that 70pc of salons are still offline and over 85pc are unable to deal with online bookings.
“The acquisition of SalonAddict sees us move a step closer to our goal to be the largest hair and beauty booking website globally,” said Beutifi CEO Richie Spence.
“The focus is now to further grow the customer base in Ireland and the UK and to launch into a number of new cities across Europe and the US.”
Spence previously worked in L’Oreal and built overseas property portal MyOverseasPropterty.ie and for seven years was head of sales for Europe at Car Trawler before leaving to set up Beutifi.
Hair salon image via Shutterstock
