Sifted Top 100 startup Barespace launches embedded finance for salons

Barespace, the fast-growing software company transforming the beauty industry with an AI-powered operating system, has announced the launch of Barespace Capital, an embedded finance product that gives salon owners direct access to growth funding through the platform they already use to run their business.

Barespace Capital sits within a broader shift toward embedded finance across vertical SaaS platforms. Platforms with real-time visibility into day-to-day operations are increasingly better-placed than traditional banks to assess creditworthiness and provide capital at the point of need. In hair and beauty, a sector with strong underlying unit economics but variable cash flow, traditional lenders have struggled to properly assess risk, often relying on retrospective financials that fail to capture the real performance of the business. With Barespace Capital, the entire process- from eligibility assessment to funding, takes under two weeks, with no separate bank application required.

Hair and beauty is a cash-generative but underserved sector for financial services. Salon owners typically run stable businesses with loyal customer bases, recurring revenue and predictable demand patterns. Despite this, they have historically been poorly served by traditional finance, which relies on documentation and processes designed for other types of business. Today Barespace works with more than 300 salons across Ireland, the UK, France and Spain, and recently secured significant seed funding to support further expansion.

Katrina Kelly, founder of Darlo Hair Salon in Dublin and the first salon owner to go live on the Barespace platform, used Barespace Capital to fund the launch of Darlo Bounce, a consumer hair product. After proving demand through in-salon sales, with the product selling out three times, Kelly needed capital for a larger manufacturing order. She secured funding through Barespace Capital within 48 hours, based entirely on her existing platform data.

By placing a larger order, Kelly was able to negotiate a better price per unit and retain more margin. Since launching in November 2025, Darlo Bounce has shipped to seven countries.

Conor Moules, Co-Founder and CEO of Barespace, said: “Salons run on tight margins and unpredictable cash flow. Traditional banks don’t understand the business, and most salon owners either go without or jump through hoops for a loan that can take months to approve. Barespace Capital changes that. Because we already live inside the salon, managing bookings, product inventory, staff, and payments, we have a real-time picture of the business that no bank ever sees. When you can see the talent and the traction in real time, backing them is not a risk. It’s obvious.”

Barespace Capital uses live booking, payment and customer behaviour data from within the Barespace platform to make fast, accurate lending decisions. Because Barespace already manages scheduling, payments, staff, inventory and analytics for salon owners, it has a real-time picture of business performance that no bank ever sees.

Repayments are tied to a percentage of weekly card machine revenue rather than fixed monthly instalments. In a quiet week, repayments go down. In a busy week, they go up. This revenue-based model aligns repayments with real cash flow, removing the pressure of rigid schedules.

Barespace Capital represents the latest step in the company’s evolution from a booking platform into an AI-powered operating system for the beauty industry. Barespace has raised €4.68 million in funding to date, including a EUR2.9 million seed round in September 2025 led by Elkstone Ventures with participation from Dogpatch Labs, Enterprise Ireland, and notable angel investors including Barry Napier (CEO of Cubic Telecom), Rick Kelley (former MD of Meta Ireland), Brian Caulfield, (formerly of Molten Ventures) and Tom Kennedy (co-founder of Hostelworld).

Since launching in January 2022, Barespace has been embraced by more than 300 salons and barbershops across Ireland, the UK, France and Spain, bringing scheduling, payments, ERP, marketing and analytics into a single AI-driven platform.

See more stories here.