Fresha hits – Beauty and wellness booking marketplace Fresha has raised $80 million from KKR’s Next Generation Technology Growth fund, valuing the London-based company at more than $1 billion. Founded in 2015, Fresha has scaled from 60,000 businesses in 2021 to more than 14
For a booking marketplace, the number that matters most isn’t a logo or a slogan—it’s appointments. Fresha. the London-based beauty and wellness scheduling platform. now sits on one of those numbers big enough to turn heads: it says businesses on its platform are booking more than 35 million appointments every month. That’s well over a billion appointments annually.
The company’s latest funding round follows that momentum. Fresha announced an $80 million investment from KKR’s Next Generation Technology Growth fund, valuing the company at more than $1 billion. The move is notable because it comes from KKR’s growth equity arm. which focuses on companies with proven business models still pursuing aggressive expansion—signaling Fresha is no longer being treated as a high-risk early bet.
Fresha was founded in 2015, and its growth has been steady and visible in the scale of its marketplace. When the company’s earlier fundraising was covered in 2021. Fresha had 60. 000 businesses on its platform and was working with more than 150. 000 professionals across 120 countries. Today, the platform counts more than 140,000 businesses, and the company says those businesses are booking those 35 million-plus appointments monthly.
There’s also the capital behind the growth. Fresha says it has now raised $285 million to date. With the new investment, it plans to expand to more countries and develop AI features.
The sequence of numbers tells a clear story of acceleration: a jump in the number of businesses. a rise in appointment volume to more than a billion a year. and now a valuation that puts Fresha above the billion-dollar line—backed by an investor that typically looks for traction and then leans into scaling.
Fresha KKR Next Generation Technology Growth fund $1 billion valuation beauty booking scheduling platform AI features London-based startup appointments per month investment
So wait, they value a booking website at over a billion but can’t even get my appointment on time… lol
AI features + beauty scheduling = we’re really gonna let an algorithm run haircuts now. Not sure how that helps anybody honestly.
I think this is like Yelp but for salons? If they’re getting 35 million appointments a month that sounds fake bc my place barely has 35 appointments a day. Also “more countries” feels like they’re just trying to get more fees.
KKR funding always sounds like rich people buying apps. Valuation over $1B means nothing to me if businesses don’t actually make money. And “70k” to “140k businesses” or whatever, I’m confused—like is that in 2021 vs now? Either way, AI features is what they’ll say right before raising prices.