Originally published here in EU Startups

While the salon management software market in the United States has experienced rapid growth over the last decade, fueled by a dramatic increase in new startup activity and supported by billions of dollars of investment from venture capital and private equity firms, the European salon market has not shown the same speed.

The reasons that explain this are the higher complexity of having multiple countries and languages, cultures and legislations, among others.

But as of today, the market is quickly catching up with startups like Salonkee, that since its inception in 2016 set up to capitalize on the expansive international opportunity in the European market.

Salonkee has just announced that it has raised €28 million to further extend market penetration across Europe, continue to invest in innovation, and expand its global team to capitalize on the immense demand for its solution.

The round was led by PeakSpan Capital, a growth-stage B2B software-focused investment firm with offices in New York, Silicon Valley and over €1.4 billion under management. Existing investors Fortino Capital, Newion Partners, Expon Capital and LBAN also participated in the round.

“The majority of salons across Europe today are still being managed either without the use of technology or they have only implemented a standard point-of-sale solution with a basic booking or scheduling platform to accept appointments online. The opportunity to leverage software to optimize every element of their operations is huge”, says Tom Michels, Co-Founder and CEO of Salonkee. “We’ve developed a comprehensive, end-to-end solution enabling customers to digitize all aspects of their operation, yielding tremendous efficiency gains and mind-blowing ROI. Our platform provides everything needed to run a salon business in the modern era from a single pane of glass, offered at a disruptive price point.

Salonkee’s platform offers salon owners with a solution supporting everything from online booking and scheduling, to integrated online and in-store payments, CRM and messaging/communication, resource and inventory planning, loyalty program management, and accounting/finance, among others. The comprehensive nature of the platform and the breadth of the solution have contributed to the company’s rapid growth trajectory.

With a net revenue retention of 135%, Salonkee has long-proven the sustainability and success of its model in an SMB market which is usually plagued by a higher churn rates . The deliberate approach the company has pursued to market expansion and the expertise the team has developed in understanding the keys to success in each market, from language requirements to local regulations and an appreciation for cultural barriers has quickly catapulted Salonkee into a market leadership position and resulted in deep penetration of every market the company has focused on to date.

Matt Melymuka, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at PeakSpan Capital notes that “The Salonkee team identified a massive market opportunity in Europe early on, characterized by a highly-fragmented landscape of competitors with no clear market leader and a suite of outdated or simplistic solutions. The team has demonstrated an incredibly impressive track record of rapid, capital-efficient growth and has been surgical in deploying a well-defined scaling playbook to methodically expand to new European markets and quickly establish market leadership and penetration. The go-to-market engine the team has built is one of the more well-oiled machines we’ve seen, and has driven tremendous growth with remarkable predictability and consistency. We’re privileged to partner with Salonkee to capitalize on the opportunity to further extend its leadership position in the highly strategic European market.”

Salonkee is based in Luxembourg, and currently has 110 employees across offices in Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands. The company today services thousands of customers and has grown revenue and customer count by over 100% annually since its inception.