They’re trying to transform beauty services in Pakistan and beyond

Beautyhooked founders Sahr Said (right) and Sidra Talha (left)

The global market for beauty services and products is a colossal US$426 billion. Hoping to tap into these trends are startups like Rocket Internet-backed Vaniday, which operates in three countries across Asia, as well as Vanitee which concentrates on Singapore.

And women consumers in Pakistan aren’t very different from their regional counterparts. They like pampering themselves and are ready to splurge for the right services. The problem is that beauty salons struggle to market themselves – there’s little online visibility and almost no avenues for potential consumers to search, rate, and review businesses nearby.

BeautyHooked wants to be that one-stop destination. The startup is the first marketplace in Pakistan where users can browse salon and spa services, review prices and special offers, and book an appointment at a time of their choosing.

It’s similar to both Vaniday and Vanitee.

“The core vision behind BeautyHooked is to significantly improve the way people experience beauty,” outlines Sahr Said, co-founder. “Women are hungry for better and efficient ways to transact.”

Sahr, who’s a former banker and holds an MBA from Cornell, recently locked in US$280,000 as seed capital to scale operations. She’s very upbeat about the future.

“Our goal is to empower beauty entrepreneurs to grow their business and consumers to look and feel great.”

Photo credit: Ms Sara Kelly.

Looking good

Sahr doesn’t provide figures for things like revenue or monthly bookings, but does say that the startup is profitable and growing fast.

One of the reasons for that is its strategy to have multiple revenue streams and not operate simply as a pure marketplace. Sahr and team organize offline events and leverage their online visibility to help salons reach a larger audience.

She explains that this approach has contributed to a significant proportion of revenues.

Its unique take on facilitating beauty consumers has already helped close a deal for international expansion – a launch in Qatar is expected within the next couple of months. Sahr says there’s plenty of interest from other Middle Eastern countries too and the team is looking at franchising partnerships to scale the product globally.

What women want