Wahanda raises $26m, buys Salonmeister

Harriet Bailey
13 October 2014

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Wahanda, a hair and beauty booking platform, has raised $26m from Fidelity Growth Partners, RGIP and Lepe Partners, and announced the purchase of Berlin-based Salonmeister.

The current Salonmeister management team will continue to run the business until it is eventually integrated into Wahanda's global platform. The acquisition fits with Wahanda's plan to expand across Europe and was conducted using a mix of cash and shares.

According to the company, the UK health, beauty and wellness industry is worth $10bn. It cited Salonmeister's management team as a reason to invest and intends to develop the business's technology, expand its consumer base and increase its spa and salon offering.

Wahanda stated it is actively growing its sales and marketing teams in the UK. It is also looking to "aggressively expand" into other European markets and will conduct acquisitions "where it makes sense".

The fundraising process was conducted concurrently to the acquisition of Salonmeister, with both activities taking around eight weeks to complete.

In May this year, Tokyo-based Recruit Holdings established its corporate venture arm, RGIP. It has ¥4.5bn (€33m) to invest in areas such as HR, travel, restaurants, beauty and housing.

Lepe is a London-based merchant bank founded by Jonathan Goodwin and had been following Wahanda for some time.

Previous funding
In October 2011, Fidelity led a £3.5m series-B funding round for Wahanda, alongside a number of business angels. The funding was earmarked for UK and international growth.

Company
Founded by Phillipp Rechberg, Louis Pfitzner and Nils Griess-Nega in 2012, Salonmeister is a Berlin-based health and beauty marketplace operating in 15 cities in the German-speaking region. It has links with 1,000 spa and salon suppliers and generates 20,000 bookings per month. Salonmeister has four employees.

Headquartered in London, Wahanda's online platform enables customers to book hair and beauty appointments at 6,000 UK-wide spas and salons. It claims to be growing at 200% per year and to be increasing the bookings at its client salons by an average of 25-30%. Wahanda employs 100 people.

People
Lopo Champalimaud is CEO at Wahanda. Louis Pfitzner is CEO at Salonmeister. Davor Hebel is a partner at Fidelity and is a Wahanda board member.

Adviser
Company – Taylor Wessing (Legal).