LONDON, March 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Fresha, the top-rated AI-powered booking platform for beauty and wellness, has been named among VivaTech's Top 100 Rising European Startups, a highly selective ranking recognising the most promising and fastest-scaling technology companies across the continent.
Selected in partnership with leading global investment firms, including Accel, Eurazeo, HV Capital, Northzone and Partech, the ranking highlights companies demonstrating strong commercial performance, sustained high growth, and the ability to transform their respective industries. Fresha joins a cohort of Europe's most innovative technology companies, alongside names such as ElevenLabs, Lovable, Flowdesk, Voize and more, reflecting its continued expansion as one of the continent's leading category-defining platforms. Notably, Fresha is the only beauty and wellness booking platform included in this year's Top 100. By combining marketplace demand, real-time booking infrastructure, and embedded payments into a unified operating system for service-based businesses of all sizes, from single-location to multi-location enterprise brands, Fresha continues to strengthen its position at the centre of the global selfcare economy.
This positioning aligns with a broader structural shift highlighted by The Wall Street Journal, which reports that service-based businesses such as salons, spas and fitness studios now account for over 50% of retail leasing for the first time, as high street consumer spending continues to move away from goods and toward experiences. As this transition accelerates, platforms like Fresha are becoming increasingly critical, providing the infrastructure needed to power, scale and monetize this new generation of service-led businesses.
The 2026 edition of the Top 100 reflects a broader structural shift across Europe's startup ecosystem, with the UK, France and Germany leading innovation across 28 sectors and a new generation of companies emerging at the intersection of software, infrastructure and real-world services. As software, marketplace and payments converge into a single operating layer, platforms that control both supply and demand are emerging as the defining winners within service-based industries.
Fresha operates at the centre of this shift, enabling businesses to manage operations while simultaneously connecting them to high-intent consumers through its global marketplace. Today, the platform supports over 140,000 beauty and wellness businesses globally across key verticals, including hair, beauty, barbering, nails, aesthetics, wellness, fitness and spa, and facilitates more than 35 million appointments per month, positioning it as one of the largest and most scalable platforms within the global beauty and wellness economy.
Since January 2021, Fresha has achieved +80% compound annualized growth across monetization and partners, significantly outperforming typical SaaS benchmarks, where average CAGR sits around 30% and top-performing companies reach approximately 50%. This sustained momentum reinforces Fresha's position as a high-performance scale-up, not just within Europe, but in the global technology ecosystem. Fresha operates in 120 countries worldwide, with physical presence in over 30 different countries from APAC to North America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
William Zeqiri, Founder & CEO of Fresha, commented: "We're seeing a structural shift in how service-based businesses operate, where discovery, booking and payments are no longer separate steps but part of a single, connected experience. Fresha sits at the centre of that shift, helping businesses not just manage operations, but grow through real-time demand. Being recognized by VivaTech is a strong validation of the platform we've built and the role we play in the evolving selfcare economy. As this shift continues, platforms that can unify operations and acquisition will define the next generation of service-based businesses."
The selection criteria required companies to be headquartered in Europe, generate at least €5 million in annual recurring revenue, and maintain growth rates exceeding 40% over the past three years, placing Fresha among a cohort of high-performance scale-ups driving the next phase of European innovation. Fresha currently generates over 140 million dollars in revenue run rate, growing at over 60% year-on-year.
As part of VivaTech, Fresha will join other selected companies at the Rising European Startups Village, engaging with investors, partners and global technology leaders shaping the future of Europe's startup ecosystem. This milestone positions Fresha at the centre of a rapidly evolving global selfcare economy, as the company continues to expand its footprint and strengthen its role as the operating layer for beauty, wellness and selfcare businesses worldwide.
About Fresha
Fresha is a global all-in-one booking, payments and business management platform built for beauty, wellness and selfcare professionals of all business sizes. The platform enables salons, barbershops, spas, medspas, clinics and fitness studios to manage appointments, process payments, attract new clients and grow revenue through an integrated marketplace and advanced automation.
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