StyleSeat Announces Closing of $25 Million in Series B Funding
SAN FRANCISCO, July 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- StyleSeat, the leading destination for beauty and wellness bookings, announces it has raised $25 million in a Series B round of funding. The round, led by Fosun Kinzon Capital, includes Lightspeed Venture Partners, Cowboy Ventures and Slow Ventures, among others.
Founded in 2011, StyleSeat has become the largest and fastest growing platform for booking beauty and wellness appointments. The platform has powered over 20 million appointments since launch and will power over $1 billion in appointments in 2015 alone. From hair stylists, make-up artists, nail technicians and other beauty and wellness experts, StyleSeat has over 320,000 professionals in over 15,000 cities across the United States and has grown almost 100% via word-of-mouth. With StyleSeat, industry experts gain a place to showcase their work, connect with clients and build their business, while consumers can discover experts as well as book appointments on the go.
"With its vision of being the platform to support beauty artists, StyleSeat provides more and better services to users. We always believe in platforms that provide better services, increasing the efficiency, and enabling those creates value to capture more of it," said Brad Bao, Managing Partner at Fosun Kinzon Capital.
"StyleSeat is uniquely positioned, led by a passionate and tech-savvy team that's perfect to achieve the goal. We are proud to support the reforming of how beauty business is done today, leveraging our expertise in building synergies among Fosun's fashion and lifestyle industries, including brands like St. John, Caruso, Cirque du Soleil and Club Med among others," he added.
StyleSeat has also appointed seasoned go-to market strategist Scot Gensler as Vice President, Business and Corporate Development. Gensler has a history of driving needle-moving growth via business development and corporate strategy leadership positions with companies like Current Media, Sony's Crackle (formerly Grouper Networks) and Livefyre.
"Our obsession with helping style professionals have better, more profitable businesses that serve consumers in superior ways has resulted in StyleSeat becoming the category leader. We are excited to rapidly expand upon this base and drive even more innovative developments for our consumers and style professionals with the help of Fosun Kinzon Capital which has expertise building luxury brands internationally," said Melody McCloskey, CEO and Co-Founder of StyleSeat. She adds, "We're delighted to add Scot Gensler to our executive team, to add firepower to our strategic partnership capabilities and really add gasoline to the strong platform we've created," continues McCloskey.
"I'm thrilled to be joining StyleSeat at such a critical juncture for the company and industry," Gensler said. "The opportunity to lead the $200B+ global beauty space into the 21st Century and help StyleSeat expand its leadership position via new and surprising partnership and growth strategies is incredibly exciting."
ABOUT STYLESEAT: StyleSeat is the leading destination for booking beauty and wellness appointments. McCloskey co-founded StyleSeat in 2011 with business partner Dan Levine to simplify the appointment booking process. More than 320,000 beauty professionals in over 15,000 cities use the platform today and clients use StyleSeat to book everything from haircuts to manicures and facials. With StyleSeat, industry experts gain a place to showcase their work, connect with clients, and build their business, while clients can discover new services and stylists and book appointments on the go. For more information please visit www.styleseat.com
ABOUT FOSUN KINZON CAPITAL: Fosun was established in Shanghai in 1992. Fosun International Limited (00656.HK) was listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited on 16 July 2007. Fosun has been persistently taking roots in China and investing in China's growth fundamentals. It has been actively implementing its investment model of "Combining China's Growth Momentum with Global Resources", with a view to making a major stride towards becoming a world-class investment group underpinned by the twin drivers of "insurance-oriented comprehensive financial capability" and "global industrial integration capability taking roots in China". Today, Fosun's businesses include two major segments, integrated finance and industrial operations.
Fosun Kinzon Capital was founded in April 2013 with $350 million under management. It invests in early stage technology ventures with a focus on mobile enabled healthcare, social and communications, as well as financial technology. With professional investment team based in the US and China, the fund is aiming to invest in ambitious and capable teams and support them to become global leaders in their respective industries.
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SOURCE StyleSeat
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