Booksy announces $70 million in funding round and merger with Versum

Booksy raises $70 million to bring its beauty and wellness appointment booking app to even more salons and customers across the US, UK and EU. 

• Founded in Poland and now headquartered in San Francisco, Booksy is the global number one appointment booking app for the beauty and wellness industry
• By removing the need for paper calendars and phone bookings, professionals can save the equivalent of 12 days a year managing bookings, payments and sales through Booksy 
• More than 38% of Booksy clients book appointments after hours; they book appointments 20% more frequently – and Booksy reduces no-shows by at least 25%
• The $70 million Series C round was led by Cat Rock Capital, with participation from Sprints Capital
• This investment comes off the back of a 1500% revenue increase over the past three years and Booksy’s December merger with Versum, a leading competitor in Poland, despite the pandemic adversely affecting large parts of the beauty industry 
• Booksy is now available in six regions – soon to be seven – and has 13 million consumers actively using the app.

27th JANUARY, 2021:

Booksy – the leading beauty and wellness appointment booking app –  has raised $70 million in a Series C round led by Cat Rock Capital, with participation from Sprints Capital.

The funding round, which also saw funding from OpenOcean, Piton Capital, VNV Global, Enern, Kai Hansen, Zach Coelius and Manta Ray Ventures, makes it one of the largest-ever Series C investments for a Polish-founded company. It takes the total raised by the firm to $119 million.

Booksy was founded by Polish entrepreneurs Stefan Batory and Konrad Howard to take the hassle out of scheduling beauty and wellness appointments. With Booksy, customers book and pay for beauty appointments with local businesses, via the main Booksy app. Service providers then manage these bookings, their payments and their customer base via an accompanying Booksy Biz app. They can also sell products online through Booksy E-Commerce.

Booksy solves the challenges of day-to-day operations for service providers, empowering small business owners across the globe by providing them with the tools they need to successfully run their businesses. Instead of spending time returning missed calls or text messages, service providers can focus on their craft. Booksy allows users to automatically schedule at a time that suits them, resulting in 38% of customers booking after-hours and increasing appointment frequency by 20%, which in turn generates more revenue for the service provider. Data also suggests that by implementing Booksy’s software, service providers can save the equivalent of 12 working days a year on average. 

What’s more, Booksy reduces the number of no-shows by at least 25% with automatic reminders and allows service providers to add a cancellation policy that ensures payment in the event of a customer missing their appointment. 

Since its launch in 2014, Booksy has expanded to six global markets – the US, UK, Poland, Spain, Brazil, and South Africa – and is the number-one beauty booking app in each of these regions, with more than 13 million consumers actively using the app. Booksy’s largest market is the US, where it is now headquartered. Proceeds from the Series C round will be used to support fast-paced expansion plans across the North American continent, including scaling up the market-leading product to ensure the best experience for providers and clients, expanding to new verticals, and seeking out non-organic growth opportunities including future acquisitions.

“At Booksy, our mission is to bring peace of mind to scheduling, giving time back for living life fully,” said founder and CEO Stefan Batory. “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. 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.” 

Not just another marketplace

Booksy occupies a unique position in the appointment booking space in that it combines the scalability and revenue potential of a mobile-first SaaS solution with the network effects of a marketplace. It is a leading example of the emerging SaaS-enabled marketplace business model that gives the company unique insight into all stages of the customer and sales journeys. 

Through Booksy Biz, the company works directly with health and beauty professionals to help them schedule appointments, manage their calendars and improve the customer experience with their clients. Booksy also offers marketing automation tools and lead generation services to help providers attract, connect with, and retain clients. Moreover, the consumer Booksy app helps customers discover and book local stylists, nail technicians, barbers and artists using curated information such as services, reviews, pricing and availability. 

Booksy charges a low monthly fee to service providers, allowing customers to use the service for free. Salons can additionally opt-in and pay a one-off commission for Booksy’s lead generation and marketing services. While the platform’s primary user base is the beauty and wellness industry, new customers have utilised Booksy as the world adapts to behavior changes from COVID-19. The company has seen use cases for personal training sessions, booking gym equipment and even scheduling nursing home visitations.  

Booksy was recently named one of the fastest-growing companies in both the 2020 Inc. 5000, and the a16z Marketplace 100 indices. Its revenue has grown 1500% in three years and its team has increased by 500%. Booksy now has more than 500 employees globally, each with direct experience in the beauty and wellness space. This is, in part, thanks to the acquisition of rival Lavito in 2018 and, more recently, the merger with Versum in December 2020. This latest transaction will enable Booksy to enter its seventh market of Mexico, while also making Booksy the largest beauty platform globally.  

Stefan is ranked in the top 5% of CEOs on Comparably – the trusted platform which ranks companies based on their compensation and culture. In 2020, Booksy was also rated among the best companies to work for in terms of diversity and gender equality.  

Macquarie Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Booksy.  

Alex Captain, founder and managing partner at Cat Rock Capital, said: “We are incredibly excited to invest in Booksy as it builds the leading global software platform for digitizing the beauty and wellness industry around the world. We have followed Booksy’s development closely for the past four years and could not be more impressed with the progress Stefan Batory and the Booksy team have made in positioning the company for leadership in this market.” 

Pierre Siri, operating partner at Sprints Capital, said: “In a competitive space, Booksy has emerged as the clear leader. With more than 13 million 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. I’m delighted to work closely with Stefan and the wider Booksy team on the next stage of the business and I can’t wait to see how the business grows to support more providers and customers across the globe.”  

Chicago-based nail technician and Booksy user, Spifster Sutton said: “Booksy has been a life-changer for me. It works through the night, while I sleep, while I’m on vacation, while I’m working. It’s everything that I would need an assistant to do. Just input your information into the system and it works on its own. The clients, they love it. It’s the easiest app I’ve used since I’ve been doing nails for 12 years. A complete lifesaver.” 

Chicago-based salon owner and Booksy user, Sam Carter said: “I don’t have to be on the phone all the time replying to clients. They see the services, they see my availability, they see the prices so everything is transparent. Getting that balance in the business really helps with your sanity. Booksy makes me accessible to my clients 24/7 without having to be accessible.”

About Booksy

 Booksy was founded by Polish serial entrepreneurs Stefan Batory and Konrad Howard in 2014 with a mission to take the hassle out of scheduling beauty and wellness appointments. Giving customers and service providers peace of mind and allowing them to get on with the rest of their lives. With Booksy, customers book and pay for beauty appointments with local businesses via the app. Salons and service providers can manage these bookings, payments and their customer base, as well as sell products, via an accompanying Booksy Biz app. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and has raised venture capital from institutional and individual investors, including Cat Rock Capital, Prince Capital Partners, Piton Capital, VNV Global, Enern, Industry Ventures, XG Ventures, OpenOcean and Zach Coelius.

About Cat Rock Capital

 Cat Rock Capital invests behind a limited number of world-class management teams running exceptional businesses all over the world. Cat Rock’s selective and concentrated investment approach allows it to provide meaningful support to its partners as they grow. The firm makes public and private investments from an evergreen fund, empowering its partners to focus on the long-term. Cat Rock has a lean team (no committees) and a focus on simplicity. Cat Rock manages over $2.0 billion from its headquarters outside of New York City and was founded in 2015 by Alex Captain, formerly a Partner at Tiger Global Management LP.

About Sprints Capital

 Sprints Capital invests in market leading technology companies managed by visionary teams. The team behind Sprints has invested more than two billion euros over the last decades and has helped create some of the largest technology-enabled companies in Europe.

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