Health and wellness startup Spa Space has raised its largest investment yet with $10.2 million from private equity firm CI Capital Partners.
The funding comes less than a year after Spa Space raised a $3 million seed round for brand awareness and platform development, according to a news release at the time.
Following the raise, the company plans to quadruple both the professional massage therapists and wellness centers in its platform’s network. Some of its clients include the spa in Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, and those within certain Grand Hyatt and Marriott locations.
It has 21 employees, most of which are not based in Atlanta, CEO Ilan Alberico said. The company is hiring and looking for a chief technology officer. It has an office space in the Terminus complex in Buckhead.
Spa Space is a marketplace that connects professionals, individuals and spa and wellness facilities. Guests use the platform to search for services and are matched with a licensed professional based on their certifications and ratings. The platform then books a service in a facility such as a wellness center, fitness center or spa.
Spa Space is part of the reservation and booking software market. That industry is estimated to reach $177 billion by 2028, according to research firm Verified Market Research.
“People as a whole have shifted into accepting that wellness should be part of their daily fabric,” Alberico said. “The trend that we're seeing now is an openness to being well.”
As a manager and operator of spa facilities and a former massage therapist, Alberico wanted to create a better way to prioritize the needs of guests and for providers to use their unique skills. She moved to Atlanta in 2017 with her family because of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the quality of schools and the city's potential as a technology hub for the Southeast.
In conjunction with the investment, Alberico sold her other two companies — Innovative Spa Management and Privai to Arch Amenities Group, a portfolio company of CI Capital Partners. AAG also took a majority stake in Spa Space. Alberico will remain president of the company.
