Booksy Acquires Kiute, Hires Proven Partnerships & Corporate Development Leader

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Booksy, the leading beauty and wellness appointment booking app, announced the expansion of its EMEA footprint via its acquisition of Kiute, a leading provider of salon management and booking software in France. Booksy is also thrilled to announce and welcome Scot Gensler as the company's Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships and Corporate Development.

Kiute has a partner network of nearly 10,000 beauty and wellness salons. With this acquisition—completed on November 9, 2021—Booksy is now the largest beauty and wellness booking and business management software provider in the world.

"We are incredibly excited to expand in France through the acquisition of Kiute," said Stefan Batory, Booksy CEO and Co-Founder. "The French beauty industry continues to set global standards and Kiute represents the perfect match with Booksy's global leadership position. Kiute has built an incredible reputation in the market and we look forward to accelerating their digitization of the French beauty and wellness industry."

"While digitizing the beauty market in France, we have kept a close eye on local and global competitors," said Ilan Koskas, Kiute CEO and cofounder. "From both a product and growth perspective, we have remained impressed by what Booksy has built and accomplished globally. France is the perfect market for Booksy's product. We see incredible opportunity for our providers, customers, and partners and I am excited for the Kiute team to step up and lead Booksy's expansion in France."

The hiring of Scot Gensler will strengthen Booksy's capabilities in corporate strategy, market intelligence, go-to-market planning and the execution of partnerships and mergers and acquisitions. His Marketplace experience includes Groupon, StyleSeat and Albertsons Companies. Scot was also a key executive at numerous high growth technology companies, including Crackle (acquired by Sony), Livefyre (acquired by Adobe) and Current TV (acquired by Al Jazeera). Scot holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Ross School at the University of Michigan and a Bachelor's degree from Rutgers University.

"We are thrilled to add Scot to our leadership team. Scot and I got acquainted years ago and had the chance to work more closely together over the last year when he joined the Booksy Advisory Board," said Stefan Batory, Booksy's CEO and Co-Founder, "He brings a potent combination of local marketplace domain expertise and an extraordinary track record of helping high growth technology ventures accelerate value via Business and Corporate Development. As such, I know he'll be invaluable to Booksy's future."

"While at Groupon, I was in a unique position to get to know almost every major global Health, Beauty & Wellness Booking Marketplace and Business Management platform, " said Scot Gensler, Booksy's new SVP of Global Partnerships and Corporate Development, "Booksy was far and away the most impressive -- the fastest growing, strongest leadership, most powerful digital product stack and unique, sustainable competitive advantages. Combine all of that with an incredibly ambitious vision and I jumped at the chance to help accelerate its global leadership position."

Since its launch in 2014, Booksy has expanded to eight global markets – the US, the UK, France, Poland, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa – and is the top beauty booking app in each of these regions, with close to 20 million consumers actively booking services through the app. Booksy's largest market is the US, where it is now headquartered.

Kiute represents Booksy's 5th M&A, following the acquisitions of Lavito (2018), Go Panache (2020), Versum (2020), and Genbook (2021). The company is actively considering additional M&A and partnership opportunities, all with an eye towards further solidifying its position as the global market leader.  Please contact [email protected] to learn more.

About Booksy

Booksy is the largest and fastest growing booking marketplace and software platform for digitizing the global beauty and wellness industry. Booksy has been named to the Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America list, Forbes Best Startup Employers list and as a top Comparably employer for Diversity two years in a row.

Booksy is driven to empower beauty and wellness providers to thrive by streamlining their businesses. Beauty providers using Booksy have access to full-featured business management capabilities, including calendar/appointment scheduling, online and offline payment processing, client management and marketing tools, including best-in-class social media integrations, staff and shift management and detailed business and inventory reports. Booksy's ambitious roadmap will continue to empower beauty providers by streamlining purchasing inventory, offering advance payout/credit and a myriad of other services that will help them increase their utilization rates and achieve more success.

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About Kiute

Kiute was founded in 2014 in Paris and is the leading software provider for beauty and wellness salons in France. Prior to merging with Booksy, Kiute was the pioneer in the French beauty market and has focused on being the most trusted provider of beauty salon software for its providers, customers and partners.

Media Contact:
Jordan Schneider
954-303-5152
[email protected]

SOURCE Booksy