More funding means even more new hires in the works at Booker in New York. The company today announced it raised $27.5 million in a Series B round led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from prior investors Grotech Ventures, Vital Financial, Revolution Ventures, and TDF Ventures.
Booker, which developed a cloud-based service management platform for small and big businesses with multiple locations, plans to use the money to bulk up team and other expansion plans. “We have some 40 open positions, about half of those in technology,” says CEO Josh McCarter. The company grew from 55 employees in early 2012 to more than 200 now. McCarter expects the hiring plans will expand the ranks to 275 to 300 by year’s end. “Right now the biggest area we need to fill in is technology,” he says, which includes design, quality assurance, and engineering.
The company’s platform is used for point-of-sale, employee management, marketing, and other needs in the service industry. Spas and fitness centers might use it to book client appointments for example. “The bulk of our customers fall into the health, wellness, and beauty categories,” McCarter says. The technology is also used for other industries such as automobile service scheduling.
Booker was spun out in 2010 from SpaFinder. McCarter says his strategy is to get more services-type business to migrate the booking of their appointments online and through mobile devices through his platform.
