London’s Fresha hits unicorn status with KKR-led $80M raise
May 22, 2026 – 12:52 pm
The London-based beauty and wellness booking platform has joined the UK unicorn club at a $1bn-plus valuation, in a deal that lands while the broader SaaS complex is busy arguing about its own funeral.
Fresha, the London-based booking and payments platform for salons and spas, has raised $80m from funds managed by KKR in a deal valuing the company at over $1bn, according to the company.
The round, structured as primary growth capital, takes Fresha to unicorn status and lifts the total raised since 2015 to $285m. The cheque comes from KKR’s Next Generation Technology Growth fund, the firm’s growth-equity arm, which invests in companies past the product-market-fit stage seeking scale capital.
The numbers Fresha disclosed explain the investment appetite:
- Used by over 130,000 beauty and wellness businesses across the UK, Australasia, the Gulf, North America, and parts of South-East Asia.
- Processes more than 35 million appointments monthly (approximately 420 million annually) with a $15bn annual gross merchandise value.
- Annual revenue run-rate stands at over $140m, growing at more than 60% per year, and the business is profitable.
- Last valuation disclosed was $640m in a Series C extension in late 2021.
Founded in 2015 by William Zeqiri and Nick Miller, Fresha has quietly displaced older booking incumbents in its core markets over the past five years, expanding into payments, capital, AI-driven scheduling, and marketing tools.
Zeqiri called reaching unicorn status “a proud milestone” and stated the round will fund global expansion and AI investment. Miller framed the funding as customer validation, highlighting that the platform is already used as a primary operating layer by its users.
KKR’s diligence included surveys of over 1,000 beauty and wellness businesses and interviews with customers, former employees, and competitors. Their research ranked Fresha first across software quality, ease of use, support, setup, and marketplace strength (average score of 8.1/10 compared to a competitor average of 6.7/10).
Patrick Devine, a partner on KKR’s Tech Growth team, highlighted Fresha’s
“differentiated platform combining software, financial services, and marketplace capabilities with embedded AI.”
Marta Szczerba, another director on the same team, praised the founders’ consistent performance.
The deal arrives at an opportune time for Fresha as the SaaS category faces challenges, with Salesforce down roughly 30% year-to-date and ongoing debates about per-seat pricing models in the AI era.