Fresha, the world's leading beauty and wellness platform acquires Australia's Bookwell

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Feb 09, 2022, 09:38 ET

LONDON, Feb. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fresha, the world's top salon and spa marketplace and booking platform, announced today their acquisition of Bookwell, an Australian competitor. The deal follows a recent $150 million Series C investment in Fresha led by leading private equity firm General Atlantic.

Fresha was rated the top salon software in 2022. The booking system came out on top in all three rating categories for: Most popular salon software; free salon software and most user-friendly salon software.

The acquisition of Bookwell marks a new phase in London based Fresha's continued successful growth story, adding to the platform's extensive base of over 60,000 partner salons and spas primarily spanning the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Bookwell was founded in 2017 by EatNow founders Matt Dyer and Nathan Airey and have signed up over 5K salons in Australia. Following their first start-up success, Bookwell was set up as a matchmaking engine for Australian beauty and wellness service providers to fill empty appointment slots with customers in their area.

"From my first meeting with William, Fresha's founder and CEO, I believed in his vision, energy and passion. By helping beauty and wellness businesses grow sales with tools to facilitate online payments, self-service bookings, and automated marketing, Fresha provides the perfect opportunity to enhance Bookwell's offering," says Matt Dyer, Founder and CEO of Bookwell. "We are thrilled to be joining forces with Fresha, the global leader in the beauty and wellness industry."

The Fresha platform is used across 120 countries globally, with tens of millions of appointments booked each month, and nearly $15 billion in value of appointments bookings processed to date. Fresha's focus on building easy-to-use, subscription-free software underpinned by a strong word-of-mouth effect has helped the company build a loyal customer base. Fresha's partner businesses rely on the platform for its ease of use, time-saving benefits, and embedded features to grow their sales, with end users enjoying a premium booking and payment experience.

"Bookwell's progress in Australia is commendable, the team have built a strong business model helping salons and therapists save thousands each year on marketing to fill empty appointments'' says Founder and CEO William Zeqiri. "There is a natural synergy with Fresha's own online marketplace and Bookwell's partner base, who now have the opportunity to benefit from our market leading software including dedicated payments system and marketing tools, all accessed under one roof. Together we are helping our partners make more money, save time and get paid more easily."

About Fresha

Fresha is a leading global salon and spa software. Each month, tens of millions of appointments are discovered, booked and paid with partner salons, spas and barbershops on Fresha. Approximately 60,000 partner venues in over 120 countries use the platform to manage their operations with Fresha's intuitive, full-spectrum, subscription-free business software. Fresha transforms beauty and wellness business operations by enabling the acceptance of online appointment bookings, processing of card payments and managing customer records, along with automations for marketing, staffing, product inventory and accounting, all in one place. Launched in 2015 originally under the name Shedul, the company rebranded to Fresha in 2020. For more information, visit www.fresha.com, download Fresha on the App Store and Google Play or follow Fresha on Facebook and Instagram.

About Bookwell

Bookwell is an Australian platform for venues in the beauty, health, and wellness industry, enabling them to grow their business, save time and spend less money. Bookwell provides salon software for venues to manage their business and an online marketplace where customers can book their appointments in an instant. 80,000+ Australians access the marketplace bookwell.com.au every week to book from over 700 venue partners.

Bookwell was founded by Matthew Dyer and Nathan Airey in 2017. Backed by Gabby and Hezi Leibovich, founders of catch.com.au and Adam Schwab and Jeremy Same founders of luxuryescapes.com.

About General Atlantic

General Atlantic is a leading global growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for growth companies. Established in 1980, General Atlantic combines a collaborative global approach, sector specific expertise, a long-term investment horizon, and a deep understanding of growth drivers to partner with great entrepreneurs and management teams to build market-leading businesses worldwide. General Atlantic has more than 175 investment professionals based in New York, Amsterdam, Beijing, Greenwich, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Munich, Palo Alto, São Paulo, Shanghai, and Singapore. For more information on General Atlantic, please visit the website: www.generalatlantic.com.