Phorest aims to be salon booking market leader after €1.3m investment

PHOREST, an Irish company that has facilitated €250 million worth of deals in beauty salons in Ireland and Britain, has completed a €1.3m funding deal to fuel expansion.

The funding has been secured from three co-investors — The AIB Seed Capital Fund, co-managed by Enterprise Equity, Enterprise Ireland and Bloom Equity — backed by experienced technology entrepreneurs.

In the past 12 months Phorest’s software processed over €250m worth of bookings, daily deals from Groupon and Living Social, and loyalty transactions in salons across Ireland and Britain.

The online beauty appointments market is projected to grow to be worth over €10 billion within the next decade, and with more than 750 salons in Britain and Ireland now utilising its booking software, Phorest believes that it is positioned to become the market leader in Europe.

Phorest founder and chief executive Ronan Perceval said that besides the accelerating sales of its appointment software in Britain and Europe, the significant investment will allow Phorest to grow its consumer booking website, Zanadoo.me, which allows customers to book treatments across the entire range of its client salons.

The investment will also lead to the creation of 20 jobs in Ireland over the next three years.

“With the continued growth of Groupon and Living Social, it’s more important than ever that salons have access to software which maximises their revenue and makes running their daily business as easy as possible,” he said.

“The beauty salon industry is undergoing a fundamental shift as people go from booking appointments over the phone to over the internet. There were 200 million appointments made in UK salons last year and we expect the majority of these to move online in the next decade.”

Bloom Equity syndicate representative Pat Garvey said that their investment of €500,000 is the largest they have made to date, and is a ringing endorsement of Phorest and its potential.