Salon Booking App Boulevard Brings in $70M
Kristin Snyder is dot.LA's 2022/23 Editorial Fellow. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
Boulevard, a salon booking and payment platform, has raised $70 million in new funding.
The Los Angeles-based company’s Series C round was led by Point72 Private Investments, with Toba Capital, Index Ventures, Bonfire Ventures, BoxGroup and VMG Partners joining the raise. Point72 Private Investments’s Eddie Kang will join Boulevard’s board of directors.
The new funds will go toward expanding engineering and development teams as the company plans to enhance the tools offered on its platform. Additionally, Boulevard intends to explore new self-care verticals. While the self-care industry reevaluated its techniques during the COVID-19 pandemic, Boulevard co-founder and CEO Matt Danna told dot.LA in an email that the company saw significant growth as more consumers prioritized self-care appointments like skin treatments and haircuts.
“The entire self-care industry has not only bounced back from the pandemic but came back even stronger,” Danna said. “The one thing that we’ve learned is that self-care is not considered ‘optional’ anymore.”
Launched in 2016, Boulevard aimed to digitize the antiquated methods many salons used to book clients. A funding influx two years ago helped it establish a national presence, and it now serves 25,000 professionals across 2,000 salons. Series B funding put the company at a $225 million valuation, and Danna said the new cash nearly triples that number. The company saw a 188 percent year-over-year increase in annual recurring revenue in 2021.
Danna said consumers often seek instant gratification, so online appointment scheduling, messaging and payments can simplify the self-care process.
Los Angeles is experiencing a venture capital slowdown, but booking platforms have thrived over the past few years. Companies like Booksy and Fresha have seen large funding rounds as the self-care industry continues to grow. Covid changed how salons approach business, and platforms like Boulevard are responding to the industry bouncing back. Danna said businesses looking to use new technology to revitalize their processes helped Boulevard grow over the past few years.
“The pause that occurred in 2020 with the shutdown also allowed many self-care businesses to focus on how to interact with their clients more efficiently and how to engage online,” Danna said. “It was a much-needed wake-up call for some of the last holdouts to digitize their businesses.”
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Kristin Snyder is dot.LA's 2022/23 Editorial Fellow. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
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