Soothe, the US-based developer of a massage therapy appointment booking app, has obtained $10.6m in series A funding led by private equity firm Riverside Company, LA Biz reported yesterday.
Founded in 2013, Soothe’s app enables users to book in-home massages from handpicked, licensed therapists at prices starting at $99. The company also runs background checks on each therapist before listing them.
Soothe currently operates in 13 markets across the US including Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and Washington DC, and will use the series A funding to expand nationally into 16 additional locations, as well as internationally.
The company raised $1.7m in a February 2015 seed round featuring IDG Ventures USA, which acts as a venture capital affiliate of media company International Data Group, and a range of angel investors. It has raised a total of $12.7m in funding to date.
Merlin Kauffman, chief executive of Soothe, said: “Massage is a $13bn market in the US, which is fragmented amongst many small spas of varying quality. It is a flawed model that is not great for clients or massage therapists.
“When we started Soothe, we knew solving these problems would be challenging, but also a huge opportunity to make high-quality in-home massage more accessible.”