Wahanda Raises Another $26M And Acquires Germany’s Salonmeister

Hair and beauty marketplace, Wahanda, has been keeping quiet of late, which, in the world of startups, usually means something’s afoot. Thus, we learn today that it’s announcing the acquisition of Salonmeister, its German equivalent. In addition, it’s also raised a further $26 million in growth-funding from RGIP, Fidelity Growth Partners and Lepe Partners this year. So a fairly busy day then.

Salonmeister, based in Berlin and founded two years ago, quickly became the main hair and beauty booking platform in Germany, Austria & Switzerland with over 1,000 spa and salon suppliers. CEO Louis Pfitzner will continue to run the business along with co-founders Phillipp Rechberg and Nils Griess-Nega, although the two businesses will be gradually integrated into a single global platform.

Lopo Champalimaud, CEO at Wahanda said: “Acquiring Salonmeister is the first step in our long-term plan to expand the business across Europe. Salonmeister immediately struck us a company that shares the same values as Wahanda – in particular an uncompromising dedication to great customer service, day in day out, with industry-leading software.”

What strikes me about Wahanda is that it’s aiming to be a kind of Zappos for health and beauty. Its focus on that market has been relentless, so it’s obvious that this acquisition will bring it continental European scale.

Right now there is no main competitor in Europe of any scale to Wahanda. In the U.S. there is StyleSeat and Lifebooker. In Japan there is HotPepperBeauty.