How Fresha Became a $1B Unicorn in Beauty and Wellness Tech

Global scale and usage

Fresha’s growth has been driven by its global reach and high transaction volume.

• About 140,000 businesses use the platform
• Active in more than 120 countries
• Over 1 billion appointments processed through the system

These metrics place Fresha among the largest digital infrastructure providers for the beauty and wellness sector.

Origins: from Shedul to Fresha

The company was founded in 2015 by William Zeqiri and Nicholas (Nick) Miller.

Its original product was Shedul, a cloud‑based appointment scheduling platform for salons and spas. The founders identified a large global industry still reliant on paper booking systems and manual operations.

Shedul focused on providing free scheduling software to attract small businesses that could not afford traditional salon management systems. As adoption grew, the company launched Fresha.com, a consumer marketplace connecting customers with those businesses.

In February 2020, the company rebranded the entire platform under the Fresha name to unify the software tools and marketplace under a single global brand.

Funding and investors on the path to $285M

Over time, Fresha raised funding from several major venture and growth investors as the platform expanded globally.

Notable funding milestones include:

• 2018: $5M early funding round led by Target Global with participation from FJ Labs.
• 2019: $20M Series B led by Partech with Target Global, BECO Capital, and FJ Labs participating.
• 2021: $100M Series C led by General Atlantic with participation from Huda Kattan’s HB Investments and other investors.
• 2021: Series C extension bringing the round to over $150M and valuing the company above $640M.
• 2026: $80M growth investment from KKR’s Next Generation Technology Growth fund, pushing the company past a $1B valuation.

According to TechCrunch, Fresha has raised about $285 million in total funding across these rounds.

How Fresha’s free software model works

One of Fresha’s most distinctive strategies is its subscription‑free business software model.

Instead of charging salons monthly fees for core software, the company generates revenue through transaction‑based services tied to platform activity. These include:

• Payment processing fees
• Fees on first‑time bookings made through the marketplace
• Marketing and messaging services
• Premium enterprise features

This model reduces adoption barriers for small businesses while allowing Fresha to earn revenue as bookings and payments flow through its ecosystem.

Why investors are backing Fresha

Investors see Fresha as part of a broader shift toward vertical software platforms that combine SaaS tools with payments and marketplace demand in a specific industry.

The beauty and wellness sector is large and highly fragmented, with millions of independent operators worldwide. By providing free operational software and a global consumer marketplace, Fresha has positioned itself as digital infrastructure for that ecosystem.

What the new KKR investment will fund

The $80 million investment from KKR is expected to accelerate several strategic initiatives:

• Global expansion into additional markets
• Development of AI‑powered tools for merchants
• Continued product development across booking, payments, and automation features

The company describes its platform as increasingly AI‑powered, aiming to automate communications, bookings, and operational tasks for beauty and wellness businesses.

The bigger picture

Fresha’s rise illustrates how vertical SaaS platforms can scale by combining free software, embedded payments, and marketplace demand. What started as a scheduling tool for salons has evolved into a global digital infrastructure platform for the self‑care industry — now serving hundreds of thousands of businesses and processing billions of appointments worldwide.