Beauty‑and‑wellness platform Fresha secured an $80 million injection from KKR’s Next Generation Technology Growth fund, pushing its valuation past $1 billion. The London‑based startup, founded in 2015, moves beyond early‑stage risk as KKR’s growth arm backs firms with proven models that are still expanding aggressively. The deal lifts total capital raised to $285 million.

When TechCrunch covered Fresha’s 2021 round, the marketplace linked 60,000 businesses and 150,000 professionals across 120 countries. Today the network spans more than 140,000 merchants, handling over 35 million appointments each month – roughly a billion bookings a year, placing Fresha among the largest scheduling platforms globally, not just in beauty.

The fresh funding will fuel geographic expansion and the rollout of AI‑driven tools, aiming to sharpen appointment optimization and upsell opportunities. Investors see a platform that can monetize scale and data, while salons gain a single‑paneled system for client acquisition. Fresha now stands as a billion‑dollar player reshaping the service‑booking market.

For investors, the deal signals confidence in the fragmented salon sector, where consolidation remains limited. By reaching a critical mass of merchants, Fresha can leverage data to negotiate better terms with suppliers and introduce premium services. The valuation benchmark may spur further private‑equity interest in niche SaaS platforms targeting high‑touch consumer services.