Fresha has announced that it has appointed Maciej Walczewski as general manager for Eastern Europe and opened a larger Warsaw office to accelerate its expansion in Poland; this is a leadership appointment and market investment, not a transaction, so no consideration applies. It shows a freshly minted unicorn deploying its KKR growth capital into a named market with dedicated local leadership rather than broad, unfocused international spending, worth tracking for any operator competing for the same fragmented beauty and wellness SMB base. 

Fresha is a London-based AI-powered marketplace and business management platform for the beauty and wellness industry, founded in 2015 by William Zeqiri and Nick Miller. The company serves more than 130,000 businesses and 500,000 professionals across 120 countries, processing over 35 million appointments a month. In May 2026 it secured an $80 million primary growth investment from funds managed by KKR, valuing the company at more than $1 billion.

Walczewski joins from Ovoko, where he served as head of sales for Central and Eastern Europe, and will lead Fresha's Polish strategy and local team growth from the newly expanded Warsaw office.

The appointment follows a 296 per cent year-on-year increase in active partner businesses using Fresha in Poland, a growth rate that outpaces the underlying market and points to share gains rather than category growth alone.

Poland's beauty and personal care sector was valued at approximately €8 billion in 2024 and is forecast to reach €9.6 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual rate of roughly 5.5 per cent, giving Fresha a large addressable base of independent salons, barbers and spas still running on fragmented booking and payment tools.

The timing follows Fresha's KKR-backed unicorn round, which management has said will fund international expansion and AI product development rather than defensive spending, positioning the Warsaw investment as an early deployment of that capital into a specific high-growth market.

For operators competing in vertical SaaS for appointment-based services, Fresha's Poland push signals that platform providers are now investing in dedicated local leadership rather than running international markets remotely, raising the bar for regional competitors without in-market teams.

Source: BusinessCloud / Scento / TechCrunch