An undisclosed bridge round has been successfully raised by Bookr, a leading cloud-based SaaS-enabled marketplace that helps users find and book salons, spas, groomers, and stylists. Plus VC is a well-known venture capital firm that invests in early-stage tech and tech-enabled startups in the MENA region and its diaspora.
For salons and their clients, Bookr is a one-stop digital shop. Bookr is a bilingual software as a service (SaaS) that allows customers and business owners to digitize every part of their operations. It is an all-inclusive end-to-end solution. It assists salons in attracting clients and leads, accepting online payments to book appointments, boosting retail sales, and managing inventory.
Bookr assists customers in finding deals, checking availability, scheduling online appointments at local salons, and placing orders for a variety of cosmetic items. The breadth of the solution and the platform’s comprehensiveness have greatly aided in the company’s explosive growth.
The recently raised funds will be used to grow the company’s workforce, broaden its regional presence throughout the GCC, improve customer experience, scale marketing initiatives, and strengthen proprietary capabilities. This round of funding follows the company’s accomplishment of several noteworthy goals during the previous 12 months.
Zaina Al Bader, co-founder and CEO of Bookr said, “We are proud to have raised this capital from Plus VC to further fuel our high-growth journey. The success of this funding round validates our business model, which demonstrates that Bookr is uniquely positioned in the beauty industry. With this backing and support, we are optimistic that we will be able to further scale our capabilities, launch new solutions, and make the network more robust, resilient, and efficient. We look forward to the exciting journey ahead together.”
“The success of the bridge round underscores the surging demand for technology solutions in the beauty and wellness sector. Since its launch, Bookr has revolutionised the way salons and spas operate, keeping up with the digital age. With a huge target market and the majority of the salons not digitised, our well-defined scaling strategy is poised for rapid growth, and we are excited about the opportunities ahead. As consumers continue to seek convenient and efficient ways to access salon services, Bookr stands at the forefront of this digital transformation, enabling salons to thrive in the evolving landscape.”
Bookr viewed 2023 as an amazing year filled with firsts and never-before-seen momentum. To date, the company has effectively worked with over 500 partners, arranging over 168K scheduled appointments with a combined value of US$6.5 million in over ten GCC cities. Moreover, Bookr has been incorporated by well-known companies in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain into their POS and SMS systems.
The goal of the Bookr app is to simplify the process of digitizing multiple tasks. The dashboard is available on Android and iOS smartphones, and it lists all products and services in both Arabic and English to accommodate all users. Three GCC nations—Kuwait, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia—were the sites of the company’s soft launch in July 2018. 2020 saw the opening of its online beauty store. Since then, it has grown naturally every month without any funding for marketing.
