GlossGenius, a software platform for beauty salons, has raised $28 million in series C funding.
The equity round was led by L Catterton Growth Fund, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners and Imaginary Ventures at a $510 million valuation.
Launched in 2016 by Princeton graduate Danielle Cohen-Shohet, GlossGenius’s technology manages small business’ end-to-end workflows across their back-office and front-office such as payments, bookings, inventory, expenses, marketing, communications, analytics, website design and more. According to L Catterton, it serves around 50,000 beauty professionals in the U.S. currently.
On the new investment, Cohen-Shohet, who is chief executive officer, said: “L Catterton is one of the leading global consumer-focused investment firms. They have very deep roots in the beauty, wellness industry, having invested in some iconic consumer and software companies in a space that is very important and relevant for us. And when it came to the C round, it was just a wonderful opportunity to work with a partner in this space that had such preeminence with their prior knowledge and past investments.”
The additional funding will accelerate GlossGenius’ development of its platform, following its recent release of myriad consumer experience, payment and automation products, according to Cohen-Shohet.
“We have been helping our business customers grow revenue by 25 to 100 percent and save hours of manual work every single day, driving financial success for local entrepreneurs,” she added. “This round will help us extend our leadership and continue to support these businesses.”
Of its investment, Ian Friedman, a partner in L Catterton’s Growth Fund, told WWD that he sees a big opportunity for the company to grow its customer base.
“Today it’s seeing unbelievable traction with 50,000 beauty professionals, but there are 1.3 million beauty professionals in the U.S. alone so there is a very large market out there,” he said. “We know that about half of beauty entrepreneurs don’t even use software today. They’re using pen and paper. They’re using Google documents, which brings a lot of friction to the process of booking. It’s hard for customers, it’s hard for them to manage their business. And we know that by moving to GlossGenius, you see incredible benefits. So with our investment we think a lot more beauty professionals are going to be adopting the software.”
This is the second raise for GlossGenius in the last 12 months and brings the company’s total funding to about $70 million to date.
In September, it raised $25 million in a series B round led by Imaginary Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Left Lane Capital. In 2021, it said it had raised $19 million from a seed round, plus a series A investment led by Bessemer Venture Partners.