Planity raises $50M in Series C funding for beauty industry booking platform expansion

Planity, a Parisian SaaS platform providing booking services for the beauty industry, has confirmed the raise of $50 million in a Series C funding round. The new capital will fuel a recruitment drive that will see the company nearly double its staff and progress with pan-European expansion plans.

Since 2017, Planity has now raised north of $100 million.

The financing round, led by InfraVia Capital Partners with participation from existing shareholders Crédit Mutuel Innovation, Revaia, and Bpifrance Digital Venture, will enable Planity to not only add 300 new staff members to its roster but shore up positions in Germany and Belgium, markets the company has seen significant growth in over the past 18 months.

“After securing a leadership position in France and quickly establishing a significant presence in the German and Belgian markets, we will strive to replicate our national success there.” - Planity CEO and co-founder Antoine Puymirat

Moreover, in addition to new staff, Planity says it intends to invest in AI-powered technologies, primarily targeting call management and appointment bookings, as well as implementing mobile payment processing options.

According to the startup, over 10 million hair and beauty appointments are booked every month via the platform across some 40,000 establishments, resulting in an ARR of $40 million in 2023. On the client side, Planity reports that salon partners can see up to a 16 per cent increase in turnover within the first year of activation.

While a beauty services appointment bookings platform perhaps isn't the first thing that springs to mind when talking tech, Tech.eu spoke to Planity's Series B round lead, Revaia partner Morgan Kessous who shared:

There have been a few initiatives and significant funding to digitise the beauty market over the last years, but Planity was the first player to design a platform with a 360-degree view of the local businesses’ needs.

Rather than focusing solely on the end users’ acquisition, Planity has built both its business model and its product around the vision to be the daily operating system of beauty professionals — now covering bookings, payments, inventory management, etc. 

Since our investment in 2021, Planity went from strengths to strengths, growing 4x over the period. The company is now in a very good position to expand its French leadership to several European countries, starting with Germany and Belgium where it experiences strong traction.

Lead image: Planity co-founder Antoine Puymirat. Photo: Uncredited.