For many small business owners like Renee Moore of SpaFly, a mobile spa, she spends more than a desirable amount of time on administrative tasks rather than going out and getting clients.
New York City-based Booker, an all-in-one service commerce platform, has expanded to Scottsdale and ready to help small businesses like SpaFly streamline daily tasks and sell their services online.
Booker’s online platform is designed to help small business owners manage their calendar, transactions and customer records, staffing, resources, inventory and more.
According to their website, the company’s platform processes over three million appointments each month across 80 countries in 11 languages and completed over $2.2 billion in transactions.
CEO and co-founder Josh McCarter said to AZTB they attribute their growth to the adoption of cloud computing by enterprise and SMB clients, consumer demand for purchasing services online, their mobile interface from both SMB merchants and consumers, and expansion to new markets.
After looking at other markets, McCarter said he chose Scottsdale and ASU SkySong, for the expansion because of the good local talent pool from local universities, affiliation with ASU, the employer-friendly state and local policies and incentives, it’s an emerging tech ecosystem with companies focused on small-business, as well as the south Scottsdale vibe and of course the great weather.
In March 2015, the company raised $35 million in a Series C led by Medina Capital, bringing their total funding to $77 million.
McCarter said the raise will be used for the Arizona expansion, investing in channel partnerships and expanding the type of service-based businesses they support such as spa and salon, pet, golf, parent/child care and more.
We also “anticipate adding other features to the platform, whether via direct development or integration with third parties. These products will be sold as add-ons,” McCarter said.
McCarter said next steps for the Arizona Booker location will be to fill jobs in Customer Experience and Enterprise Support, inside sales, and marketing.
We are “very excited about our expansion in to AZ and look forward to being a productive part of the local community and economy,” McCarter said.
Economic development groups who were helpful in bringing Booker to Arizona included the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, City of Scottsdale and Knowledge Enterprise Development at ASU SkySong.
Chris Camacho, president and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council said, “This emergence of tech companies into the market is indicative of the robust talent pool that exists, and the great livability our communities offer these workers.”
Read more about tech companies expanding to Arizona at AZ Tech Beat.
New information about economic development involvement and Camacho’s statement were added after the original post.
Graphics courtesy of Booker
