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If you ’ve ever traveled in rural country in France , you may have realize a Gallic peculiarity . Even in the seemingly less - populate towns , there ’s a hairsbreadth beauty salon .
French startupPlanityhas been taking vantage of France ’s erotic love affair with hair beauty parlor to found a SaaS product for these businesses in peculiar . Over time , the ship’s company elaborate to other types of looker salons , such as Samuel Barber and nail salons .
And it has been work surprisingly well , as there are now more than 40,000 modest businesses relying on Planity for appointment reservation and more . In fact , the startup of late promote a € 45 million Series C daily round ( $ 48 million at today ’s exchange rate ) extend by InfraVia Capital Partners with exist investor Crédit Mutuel Innovation , Revaia and Bpifrance ’s Digital Venture monetary fund also participating .
Planity ’s trajectory is an interesting one given that it is n’t the first big European tech fellowship trying to simplify beauty beauty parlour naming booking . In finicky , Treatwellis already live in a 12 European countries and had seemingly captivate the digitization opportunity of this highly fragmented market .
Doctolib for beauty salons
So what ’s different with Planity ? The inauguration ’s conscientious objector - beginner and CEO Antoine Puymirat first protrude work on online assignment booking in 2007 . His first inauguration , call ClicRDV , was a white - recording label on-line booking result for all sort of businesses . It was acquired by PagesJaune ( now SoLocal ) .
After a few years working for SoLocal , he left the company and go back to the drawing board with a more focused approach . Instead of creating an all - encompass appointment result , he chose to focus on beaut beauty parlor specifically .
Around the same time , Doctolib was take off to take off . The French inauguration , which isnow a unicorn , has completely commute appointment engagement for Dr. and other health - related task . Its encroachment is even enceinte than that , as it has profoundly alter how Gallic people deal with health issue .
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Planity take out some inspiration from Doctolib . It ’s a SaaS chopine that wholly put back the good old paper notebook computer that was widely used in whisker salons . When people call for an appointment , employee write down the assignment in Planity directly . And , of course , citizenry can also reserve appointment online through Planity ’s app and website . It becomes the single source of Sojourner Truth and simplifies salon direction .
Unlike Treatwell , Planity does n’t charge a commission on each future sale . or else , Planity is a traditional SaaS product with a monthly subscription fee . The independent product currently costs € 69 per calendar month . ( With a trivial back - of - the - gasbag calculation , it means that Planity likely generates tens of trillion of euros in annual recur tax revenue . )
“ Most of the be player have take on a traditional market model like the one of Booking.com or TheFork , ” Puymirat differentiate me . “ Clients pay a per centum of the full amount of each reservation . But we realized that this model was n’t work as some companies have been around for 15 years , but they never really reached a pregnant plate in Europe . ”
According to him , the main issue is that most customer are revert customers . And you do n’t desire to pay a committal every time they reserve an appointment . With Planity , the more your customers practice it to book appointments online , the less time you scourge on the phone — and it does n’t be you more . That ’s why beauty salon encourage their client to use Planity .
“ We go a minute further than that . We also let our businesses manage working 60 minutes . employee can time in and out in the morning and in the even . We handle vacation . We can export payroll information , ” Puymirat said .
Every month , around eight million people visit Planity . The platform handles around 10 million booking per month — 4 million of them are booked immediately by the end customers on Planity . Other date are entered manually by employees when a customer is talking to them directly .
The platform handle wait tilt , ship reminders via text edition messages and creates a individualised agenda for each employee . Planity can also replace the spot - of - sales solution for an additional € 20 per calendar month .
Some customer also get requital terminus from Planity . In that showcase , Planity uses Stripe ’s APIs for the payment good deal and takes a lowly cut on each dealings . But small store that are already working with their bank for their defrayal terminals can keep using those terminal .
Up next , the company design to cover well - being and fitness centers . Planity ’s main market remains France — its home land — but the caller is starting to grow in Belgium and Germany .
In addition to the fragmentation of the beauty beauty salon industry , there ’s a barrier to entryway to create a Planity competitor . The party has a expectant sales team . They go and meet raw clients to ensure that they understand how the software platform works .
This strategy is both capital - intensive and requires a solid sales playbook to employment . There are currently around 200 sales mass working for Planity , and the company plans to hire even more .
