Cloud-based technology platform ManageMySpa, which targets spas, salons and medi spas, has recently raised Series A funding amounting to US$6 million (Rs.38 crore) from Accel Partners and others.
The company is expected to utilize the funds to accelerate its global sales and marketing growth, specially in US and have elaborate plans to expand its mobile product offering.
“As a cloud-based player, really our vision was always to be the global player. Though, we do have significant presence already in India, Middle East and South East Asia. The money now primarily will be used towards expanding our reach into the US market and then, further to that, we already have a very important Mobo-Component to our division,” said Saritha Katikaneni, Co-founder and Vice President (Marketing), Managemyspa.com, in an exclusive conversation with WI Bureau.
She further shared, “So what we wanted to do is, to break-through our technology inner base with completely Mobo solution for the spa and salon. Today, you require a laptop, instead of using a one year search watch; these businesses are very operational and sensitive. So what we are investing in is to stream all the processes where you can essentially run or form your businesses from an iPad or tablets, that kind of work we are investing in, to bring that edge to our board of innovation,” unveiled She.
Founded in 2010 by a group of three engineers; Sudheer Koneru, Dheeraj Koneru and Anand Arvind along with its Co-Founder Katikaneni. It now has offices in seven countries and customers across 30 countries. It claims to be posting ‘double fold’ year-on-year growth since its inception.
Meanwhile, elaborating on the reason behind investing in the tech start-up, Shekhar Kirani of Accel Partners, who has also joined the start-up’s Board of Directors said, “Accel invests in companies with strong founding teams and a product that serves high-growth markets,” said Kirani. “We believe that ManageMySpa is at a pivotal point in its growth trajectory and has all the competencies to become the leader in its space. We are excited about the momentum the company has experienced so far and the growth of the wellness industry globally.”
Accel Partners is a venture and growth equity firm. Its portfolio of investments include Atlassian, Braintree, BookMyShow, Cloudera, Dropbox, Etsy, Facebook, Flipkart, FreshDesk, MuSigma, Myntra, Ola-TaxiForSure, Perfint, Slack, Spotify and others.
Meanwhile, Katikaneni shared, “Managemyspa was primarily funded and this is the first outside money that we’ve taken. Accel approached us over a year. They did a lot of investments of course in India. As we’ve started in 2010 and saw a great customer base in India as well as globally, from there we built due diligence very quickly. We raised US$ 6 million from Accel and our primary approach will be to extend our marketing approach globally as well as further innovations in our local product offerings.”
The cloud-based model is headquartered in Seattle (Washington), the company globally manages its operations across six other cities including Hyderabad, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Jakarta and Sydney.
Its revenue model varied from over US$ 100 and has elaborate enterprise plans as well.
“We are a cloud-service which means that our clients which are spas, salons, medi spas attain a monthly subscription, and we have different plans to cater to the high-end and single location brand. Our plans range from US$100-$500 a month depending on the size of the business and the capabilities they need. The plans include the core software as well as customer support, training resources, free email credits and the mobile app for managers. The enterprise plan, which is the higher valued plan, also includes capabilities that support the chain or larger business. For example, our Business Intelligence tool is used only by the large enterprise business,” noted Katikaneni.
With a staff of nearly 80 employees empowered to provide impeccable service, ManageMySpa is now moving at a fast pace to introduce its brand new initiative in the form of a mobile booking app, ‘Take 5 Today’. It will offer geo-location capabilities to nearby salons and spas, book them as per availability, payment abilities and pocket-friendly deals to let the patrons enjoy a hassle-free booking experience.
