They say lightning doesn’t strike twice, but after it did Seaya Ventures is hoping it does for a third time. The VC fund has led a $4 million round in Spanish and Latin American beauty marketplace Miora, founded by Diego Ballesteros.
Ballesteros previously co-founded online takeout startups SinDelantal (in Spain) and SinDelantal.Mx (in Mexixo). The former was backed by Seaya Ventures partner Michael Kleindl and the latter by Seaya Ventures itself. Both companies were acquired by Just Eat.
Founded earlier this year and launched in five countries — Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile — Miora operates an online marketplace and booking platform for beauty treatments. For consumers it offers greater choice and the convenience of online booking, and for the 750 beauty salons signed up to the platform, promises to drive more business and “fully digitise” the beauty industry.
Asked how the new capital will be used by the Madrid-headquartered started, Ballesteros notes that Miora is launching five markets in one go. “This is something we could not have done on our own,” he says. In addition to building the startup’s technology, money will be used to grow the sales organisation and marketing.
Competitor-wise, Ballesteros reckons there is little in Spain and LatAm at the moment but concedes that longer term Rocket Internet’s Vaniday will likely provide direct competition, as will the U.K.’s Wahanda, which continues to expand across Europe and recently raised $73 million in new funding.
“For the moment there is almost no competitor in these markets besides Spain,” Seaya Venture’s Kleindl tells me. “In LatAm where the company will focus and now operates there is no Rocket or someone else. This will change for sure but Diego together with us has experience in comepeting against Rocket Internet. Just look at Sindelantal.mx!”
To that end, both Kleindl and Ballesteros believe Miora will become a bigger business than either SinDelantal were. Alongside Seaya, Mexican funds Variv Capital and Nazca Ventures also co-invested.
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