INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Shedul, an online booking platform for salons and spas, has raised $5 million in funding
The round is led by Berlin Target Global, with participation from New York based FJ Labs
A number of individuals also invested personally, including Niklas Östberg (founder and CEO of Delivery Hero), and Hakan Koç (co-founder
and co-CEO of Auto1 Group).Launched in 2015, Shedul first product is a free SaaS designed to help salons and spas manage their day-to-day
The platform features span managing appointment bookings, point-of-sale, customer records, inventory, and financial reporting
A second, more recent offering is the Fresha.com marketplace, and it here where the London-headquartered company generates revenue by
charging merchants a small percentage fee on top of bookings.&We&ve built the world best platform for beauty and wellness industry and given
it to all businesses globally 100 percent subscription free,& says founder and CEO William Zeqiri
&Good free software has spread virally with users in the industry enabling us to acquire new merchants very fast&.This has seen Shedul
acquire salon and spa operator customers in more than 120 countries, primarily in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Canada
Around 6 million appointments are booked each month, growing at an average rate of 20 percent month-on-month, while the platform is on track
to process $3.5 billion worth of appointment bookings by the end of 2018.&Leveraging our existing pool of global merchants allowed us to
bootstrap the consumer marketplace with a lot of liquidity,& explains Zeqiri
&This created additional value proposition for both merchants and marketplace customers
With our Free SaaS-enabled marketplace business model we are leveraging the critical mass of merchants and marketplace users to scale the
platform exponentially&.Currently in the initial rollout phase, Zeqiri says Fresha.com provides mobile apps for customers and real-time
booking integrations through Instagram, Facebook and Google, along with in-app payment processing
It also incorporates intelligent features to help merchants grow revenues
This includes displaying price and availability options based on a customer purchase history and the merchant projected occupancy.&With our
two-sided Marketplace platform, we&re automating many processes of running a business in the beauty industry with powerful online booking
features, marketing tools and access to our consumer marketplace to attract new clients
This frees up merchants to do what they do best and spend more face time with customers,& adds the Shedul CEO.&We have salons where 80
percent of their bookings are now made though our online marketplace Fresha.com
Our technology helps businesses optimize their schedule with real-time online availability; in some cases it has increased merchant revenues
more than 30 percent&.Shedul counts its main competitors in the U.S
as MindBody, Vagaro, and StyleSeat
In Europe, the startup competes most directly with marketplace TreatWell.Meanwhile, Shedul says the new capital will be used for product
development and to support the continued rollout of the new marketplace offering
It brings the total amount raised by the company to over $11 million to date and should see it through to an upcoming Series B round.
