Salonkee Raises €6.2m in Series A Round

Luxembourg-based startup Salonkee has announced that it recently raised €6.2 milion in Series A financing from international investors.

Following its rapid growth from Luxembourg into Belgium and Switzerland, Salonkee has raised €6.2 million in its latest Series A funding round, led by Fortino Capital and Newion, to further accelerate its European expansion. 

After its initial traction and success in Luxembourg, Salonkee entered Belgium and quickly outgrew its local competitors in less than two years to become Belgium's leading online booking platform and management tool for hairdresser, beauty and wellness appointments. As confirmed by Tom Michels, Co-Founder and CEO of Salonkee, no matter where you are located in Luxembourg or Belgium, the closest salon on Salonkee is no more than fifteen minutes away. 

In total, there are more than 800,000 salons across Europe and the majority of them are still working on pen and paper or with outdated software solutions. “Our goal is to lead the transition away from those outdated methods towards market specific, easy to use, all-in-one salon management solutions and empower salon owners all across Europe to better manage and grow their businesses”, explained Mr Michels.

Since its launch in 2017 by five Luxembourg-based co-founders, (Tom Michels, Andre Stehle, Alexandre J. Claro, Samuel Faber and Gilberto Fernandes), Salonkee has managed more than five million appointments across over 1,200 salons. Over the next two years, the ambition is to grow to over 10,000 partner salons across Europe. 

Salonkee’s ambitions are as international as the composition of its new investors joining the company, which are Fortino Capital from Belgium, Newion from the Netherlands, Verve from Switzerland and some experienced business angels from Germany, making it one of Luxembourg’s most internationally funded startups to date. All existing Luxembourgish Seed investors also participated in this new round.

"Salonkee addresses the underpenetrated market of beauty salons in continental Europe. In the salon sector, digitalisation is only getting started, compared to other sectors like hotels and the medical space where digitalisation has already been ongoing for quite some time. We are confident that the timing is right for Salonkee to digitalise salons with its end-to-end value proposition. Together with the management team we look forward to make this growth journey happen", commented Filip Van Innis, Investment Director at Fortino Capital.

Mathijs de Wit, Partner at Newion, added: "Our experience investing in B2B SaaS companies allowed us to quickly recognise Salonkee’s great potential, considering its traction and fast growth in the past few years, whereby it has become the solution of choice for hair, beauty and wellness salons across Luxembourg, Belgium and Switzerland. We are excited to support the Salonkee team in their journey to become the leading all-in-one salon management platform in Western Europe". 

Expon Capital, which has been an investor since Salonkee’s seed round, has also significantly invested in this Series A round. “We’ve been working with Salonkee since its early days and we have been very impressed by the ambition, management of the founders as well as their ability to execute, navigate and grow Salonkee even through the most challenging times in the midst of a pandemic”, noted Alain Rodermann, Managing Partner at Expon Capital.

The Luxembourg Business Angel Network (LBAN), another early investor in Salonkee, commented: “We had the chance to meet Tom and his co-founders already during a pitch in 2017 and we were impressed by their ambition and leadership which you only see in outstanding entrepreneurs. We are delighted to back this round again and continue to support an amazing team and company".

To achieve their goals, Salonkee is set to grow its team from 25 to over 100 employees across all departments and is currently looking for talented, like-minded and ambitious people to join them on their mission to digitise the European hair and beauty industry. More information about current job openings is available at: https://salonkee.recruitee.com.