Konrad Howard and Stefan Batory. Image: Booksy
The Polish-founded start-up has been on the acquisition trail recently as it plots further global expansion.
Booksy, a booking and payments management platform for beauty and wellness businesses, has raised $70m in a Series C round.
Founded in Poland and now headquartered in San Francisco, Booksy has developed an appointment booking app. It is targeted at small businesses in the beauty and wellness industries, with features for managing bookings, automating schedules, accepting payments and running e-commerce services.
The SaaS product has 13m active users and is operating in six markets. It plans to invest in further expansion in the US and entering the market in Mexico.
The Series C round was led by Cat Rock Capital with participation from Sprints Capital, OpenOcean, Piton Capital and Manta Ray Ventures, among others. The round brings Boosky’s total funding to $119m.
The company, founded by Stefan Batory and Konrad Howard, said it has seen strong gains in revenue last 12 months despite the pandemic. In the last year, the app has diversified its client base beyond beauty salons, with personal trainers and gyms signing up for the booking of gym equipment.
“Like with many sectors negatively hit by the pandemic, it’s been a turbulent time for the beauty and wellness industry, but we’re confident in its ability to come back from this. So it’s fantastic to see our latest group of investors share our optimism and vision,” chief executive Batory said.
“This latest round of funding enables us to reach even more salons and service providers across the US, and in all the regions we operate, which in turn helps them reach more customers. Providing a cost-effective way to offer, manage and increase digital bookings, reduce no-shows and give customers what they want could help make small businesses and entire industries more resilient.”
Booksy generates revenues from monthly charges for service providers, with additional charges for marketing services. The booking app is free to use for consumers.
The start-up has also grown through mergers and acquisitions. It snapped up Lavito in 2018 and last year it merged with rivals Versum, another Polish company, and GoPanache in the US.
In Europe, the space remains busy with the likes of Irish start-up Phorest and the UK’s Shedul.
“In a competitive space, Booksy has emerged as the clear leader,” Pierre Siri, operating partner at Sprints Capital, said. “With more than 13m customers, not to mention the thousands of service providers that are saving time and increasing their revenue through the platform, Booksy is transforming beauty from a paper-led industry into one that is digital-first.”
