Squire Technologies, a small-business management platform for barbers, barbershops and people who need haircuts has raised big bucks, $34 million in a Series-B funding round.
Squire’s barbershop management and point-of-sale software allows people to book and pay for barbershop visits on their cellphones in an all-inclusive platform used by barbers to schedule haircuts and process transactions.
The company was co-founded in 2015 by attorney-turned-tech-founder Songe LaRon and MBA Dave Salvant, who noticed inefficiencies in barbershops and set out to solve for that using their experience working for other people in law and finance.
To understand their customers inside and out, LaRon and Salvant opened a barbershop and ran it.
“Many shops would be using two or three different (kinds of) software to run their business,” LaRon said in an earlier Moguldom interview. “They would use one thing for booking, one thing for point-of-sale payment, and something else for marketing and CRM. Technology is not their specialty, their specialty is cutting hair.”
The $34 million Series-B round was led by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm CRV, with participation from the San Francisco 49ers, Tiger Global and Charles Phillips, former CEO and chairman of Infor. Existing investors include Y Combinator, Trinity Ventures, 645 Ventures, and Comcast Ventures’ Catalyst Fund.
This Series-B round includes $27 million in equity financing and $7 million in debt financing, bringing the total raised to $46.2 million for the tech startup.
This money from this investment will help the company adds financial services to its digital platform, which is used in 35 cities in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., according to a press release.
Just a year ago, Squire announced $8 million in Series-A funding, bringing its total funding at the time to $12.2 million.
Funds from the new round will be used to help barbershops function in a post-pandemic society seamlessly, the owners said.
“Small businesses are hurting right now,” said Squire CEO LaRon, in a prepared statement. “Fortunately, barbershops are well-positioned to thrive in an economic downturn since people will always need haircuts,” says”We’re focused on providing the payment infrastructure and financial services that will help barbershops reopen successfully and excel post-covid. This investment will help us scale and execute on our goal of becoming the industry standard for barbershops.”
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Both in their 30s and living in New York City, LaRon and Salvant had successful careers in law and finance before entering the entrepreneurial world. LaRon attended Yale Law School.
They wanted a solution, not just for men in the African American community, but globally. They say their app is helping men across the world to have a more efficient experience with the fundamental task of grooming.
“Ultimately, we want to be a multi-billion dollar technology company,” LaRon told Moguldom.
Squire has offices in New York City and Buffalo, New York.
