Zenoti, a Bellevue, Washington and India-based company that develops services for the spa and salon industry, is the latest “unicorn”, and one of the few that provides services including appointment scheduling capabilities.
The SaaS company has raised $160 million in its latest financing round that valued it at “well past $1 billion,” according to Sudheer Koneru, founder and chief executive of Zenoti, in an interview with TechCrunch earlier this week. The round was led by Advent International with participation from Tiger Global and Steadview Partners. The startup has raised $251 million to date with the latest Series D round. Their last round in August 2016 raised $15 million by comparison.
Zenoti focuses on the beauty and wellness vertical. The platform allows customers to pay directly from a mobile app after they schedule an appointment. It also checks them in when they walk into the store and notifies the providers. Zenoti allows clients to accept bookings, digital payments, handle payroll, manage backend inventory and transfer the tip from customers directly to a staff member’s bank account.
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Zenoti’s new round of investment will allow it to expand to some additional vertical markets, such as grooming. In recent months, it has started to serve gyms and fitness centers, which have a similar business model to the beauty and wellness customers. Zenoti stated that it is interested in M&A opportunities, Koneru said, adding that these acquisitions would “ideally fuel the startup’s customer growth instead of broadening the technology stack”.
Zenoti focuses on larger, franchise-based organizations, but will also now be accelerating the competition with companies such as MINDBODY and others full-featured solution providers.
Read the full TechCrunch article here