- Fresha has raised $80M from KKR at a $1B+ valuation, making it the latest London unicorn and bringing total funding to $285M
- Founded in the UAE in 2015 by William Zeqiri, a former Dubai Holding VP, Fresha relocated to London and quietly became one of the world’s top 10 lifestyle apps
- The beauty and wellness platform is already profitable, with a $140M+ revenue run-rate growing at over 60% annually across 130,000 businesses in 120 countries
In 2015, William Zeqiri was a technology executive in Dubai with a simple observation: the beauty industry was running on paper appointment books, fragmented software, and guesswork. He built a platform to fix it. A decade later, KKR has just valued that platform at $1 billion.
Fresha has closed an $80 million growth round from KKR, the New York-based global investment firm whose Next Generation Technology Growth strategy has previously backed Reserv, Coder, and Trainline, and, in Europe, recently led a $370 million round into hotel software unicorn Lighthouse. The transaction values Fresha at over $1 billion, making it the latest addition to the UK’s unicorn club, and brings total funding to $285 million. This is KKR’s first and sole investment in Fresha, and the first institutional capital the company has taken since a $30.8 million venture debt round from J.P. Morgan Asset Management in August 2024.
The founder’s journey is not a typical one. William Zeqiri spent years working in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, including a stint as VP of Technology at Dubai Holding, before founding Fresha in the UAE in 2015 alongside co-founder Nicholas Miller. The company originally launched as Shedul, a scheduling-first platform that stripped away subscription fees entirely to drive rapid merchant adoption. It rebranded to Fresha as it expanded into marketplace and payments, eventually relocating its headquarters to London as it scaled globally.
That early conviction attracted backing from UAE-based investors who recognised the opportunity first. MEVP, Fresha’s first institutional investor at seed in 2015, generated a 39x cash-on-cash return and 88% IRR when it took a partial exit during the Series C led by General Atlantic in 2021, and a 52x multiple and over 90% IRR during the Series C extension six months later at a $640 million valuation. Those are among the strongest early-stage returns recorded in the region’s tech history.
How Fresha works and why it has grown
Fresha operates as both a consumer marketplace and a B2B software platform for beauty and wellness businesses. On the consumer side, it lets people discover and book appointments. On the business side, it replaces the fragmented tools most salons, barbershops, spas, and studios rely on, combining appointment management, point-of-sale payments, client marketing, inventory, and financial services into one system. The platform monetises through payment processing fees, subscription plans introduced in 2025, and new client booking commissions rather than a single flat monthly fee.
That structure has driven adoption that speaks for itself: 130,000 businesses, 500,000+ stylists, 120 countries, 35 million appointments per month, and more than $15 billion in annual transactions. As of May 2026, it is growing at over 60% annually with a revenue run-rate exceeding $140 million, and it is already profitable, a distinction that most companies at this valuation level cannot claim.
The company has approximately 500 employees and is headquartered in London, with offices in New York, Sydney, Dublin, Amsterdam, Dubai, and Warsaw.
“Reaching unicorn status is a proud milestone, but more importantly, this investment is a strong testament to the trust our partners place in Fresha every day,” said William Zeqiri, Founder and CEO. “With KKR’s support, we will be able to further accelerate our global expansion and invest heavily in AI to transform how beauty and wellness businesses operate worldwide.”
The competitive landscape
Fresha’s most direct rivals are Booksy, which raised $70 million in a Series C led by Tiger Global and is strong in North America and Europe; Vagaro, which has raised $63 million and focuses on the US market with a subscription-based approach; and Mindbody, which targets the fitness and wellness end of the market. Where Fresha differs is its integrated payments infrastructure and marketplace strategy, which creates recurring revenue at scale while keeping the barrier to entry low for new businesses joining the platform.
KKR’s investment came through its Next Generation Technology Growth strategy, the same vehicle it uses to back companies with proven business models that are in aggressive expansion mode. The firm is not backing a bet. It is backing a business that already works.
“Fresha has built a differentiated platform, combining software, financial services, and marketplace capabilities with embedded AI, in a way that is deeply integrated into daily operations of beauty and wellness businesses,” said Patrick Devine, Partner and member of KKR’s Tech Growth team.
The market it is scaling into
The spa and salon software market was valued at $1.01 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $1.86 billion by 2031, growing at a 10.68% CAGR, according to Mordor Intelligence, driven by post-pandemic wellness spending, the shift from manual appointment books to cloud-based systems, and the growing integration of AI, embedded payments, and marketplace tools into salon operations. Fresha holds strong positions in the UK, Australasia, and the Gulf, the same region where it was born, with North America, Continental Europe, and Southeast Asia as its next expansion priorities.
A founder who spotted a problem in Dubai. A platform that quietly became one of the world’s most used lifestyle apps. And a $1 billion valuation backed by one of the world’s most discerning growth investors. The question now is not whether Fresha can scale — it already has. The question is how far.