Averaging almost one acquisition a month over the past six months, beauty and health e-booking website Wahanda has announced yet another takeover.
This time the company had its eye on the French market and its equivalent booking service website ZenSoon.
The acquisition news follows the announcement made just last week that Wahanda had acquired its Dutch equivalent Treatwell.
Wahanda used its latest acquisition of ZenSoon to announce that Recruit, a Japanese company that owns a majority stake in the company, has ploughed a further €65m into the company, specifically to invest in the development of its business in France, Spain, Italy and Benelux. The cash boost follows Recruit's investment of €42m in Wahanda in May to grow its UK and German markets.
“France is a vitally important strategic market for us as we continue to drive forward our plans to build a world-class platform and transform the way people book their hair and beauty appointments globally,” said Lopo Champalimaud, founder and CEO of Wahanda. “The hair and beauty market in France alone is worth €11bn, with over 100,000 spas and salons. With limited funding, ZenSoon, through its truly entrepreneurial spirit, has achieved incredible growth and positioned itself as a major player in the French market.”
The services Wahanda has rapidly acquired over the past half year are based in different European countries: The company acquired Austria’s Beautycheck in April 2015, Lithuanian mobile app development agency Lemon Labs in January 2015 and Germany’s Salonmeister towards the end of last year.
