Squire Raises $8M Series A to Fuel Growth of Appointment-Based Business Management Platform Serving Barbershops

USA - English

• USA - English

SAN FRANCISCO, June 25, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Squire Technologies, the fastest-growing small business management platform serving the men's grooming segment, announced $8 million in Series A funding, bringing Squire's total financing to-date to $12.2 million. The funds will be used to accelerate investment in research and development, recruit product and engineering talent, and expand the company's market presence. The round was led by Trinity Ventures with participation from new investor 645 Ventures, as well as existing investors Y Combinator, Bluefog Capital, Altair Capital, and Rich Dennis' New General Market Partners. The company's previous $4.2 million seed round also included 43North and the notable angel investors Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel, serial entrepreneur Paul Judge, Gmail creator Paul Bucheit, and former Facebook executive and Global VP of TikTok, Blake Chandlee.

Squire's business management and payments platform helps appointment-based small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) streamline operations, improve customer service, and grow revenue – bringing a fully operational, modern technology infrastructure to a segment traditionally underserved by software. Squire is offering its best-in-class platform to the over 400,000 barbershops and men's salons in the U.S. and Canada. Squire currently services customers in 28 major cities across three countries. The company grew 400 percent in 2018, and in the last 24 months has accumulated over 3 million end users and processed over $100 million of transactions.

Squire currently offers a full suite of features built specifically for barbershops, handling everything from appointments and payments via white-labeled mobile apps to back office operations like point of sale, payroll and inventory. For barbershop clients, the Squire app offers the ability to discover barbershops in their area, book services, process payment and handle gratuity -- all within the app, eliminating friction from the booking and purchase experience and improving retention by an average of 13 percent within the first two months.

"Squire enables our team to streamline operations in a way that wouldn't be possible with other software," said Nicky Prosseda, owner of the popular Modern Male Barbershop, which has five locations in Pennsylvania. "Thanks to Squire's focus on the unique needs of barbershop owners, I am able to make data-driven decisions to take my business to the next level."

After successful careers in law and finance, respectively, Squire founders Songe LaRon and Dave Salvant owned and operated a high-end barbershop in Manhattan so they could better understand their target customers before launching Squire. "The unique needs and challenges of small businesses require truly verticalized software that is both affordable and scalable. Barbershops represent the type of fragmented small business that has typically been overlooked by technology. We believe there's a massive opportunity in delivering customized solutions to these traditionally underserved segments," said Squire co-founder and CEO, Songe LaRon.

"Squire has done a phenomenal job of creating a delightful user experience for both small business owners and their customers. They are making payments disappear on both sides of a complex, multi-step transaction, and they are bringing innovative Silicon Valley technology to the SMB ecosystem," said Schwark Satyavolu, General Partner at Trinity Ventures and member of Squire's Board of Directors.

About Squire
Founded in 2015, Squire Technologies provides a robust, fully integrated software system for Barbershops and men's salons. This software has the capability to serve independent professionals, stand-alone locations, and multi-location franchises, with tools such as Point of Sale, Scheduling, Payroll, CRM, and a host of other features. Squire has offices in San Francisco, New York City and Buffalo, NY, and maintains operations in 28 major cities across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Squire is a Y Combinator-backed company and is a 43North award recipient. For more information, visit http://www.getsquire.com.

About Trinity Ventures
Trinity Ventures is a top-tier venture capital firm that takes a personal approach to early stage investing. For over thirty years, Trinity has helped passionate entrepreneurs with breakthrough ideas transform markets and lives. The firm manages $1.37 billion of committed capital with investments in consumer and enterprise technology companies. The Trinity investment portfolio includes iconic brands like Starbucks (SBUX), Zulily (ZU) and New Relic (NEWR), as well as "unicorns" like Auth0, Cohesity, Docker and Outreach. For more information, visit http://www.trinityventures.com.

SOURCE Trinity Ventures