Solo Innovations · Investment case

Building a £100m+ revenue AI operating system for salons & spas.

We built Solo to a £1.1m run-rate with solopreneurs. The next step is capturing the software and services spend of established salons.

01 / The problem

Salon owners are overwhelmed by their software and overspending on people.

08:24
Tuesday 22 September
rota
Rota06:42
Chloe wants Saturday off
Stripe07:15
A £180 payment disputed
Google07:58
You received a 1-star review
WhatsApp08:03
Maya is late, cover her 9am?
zenoti
Zenoti08:10
3 bookings need confirming
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Agency: move Thursday's call?
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5 invoices overdue, £2,140

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02 / What we’ve built

We’ve already built a profitable, fast-growing software business for solopreneurs.

£1.1m

Revenue run-rate

+175%

Growth year on year

£28k

Profit a month, July 2026

2,384

Active, paying businesses, plus 10 established salons piloting

100%+

Net revenue retention

<6

Months to pay back sales and marketing cost

03 / Why now

AI means we can now sell salons the work, not just the software.

A

Software & payments

Proven
Price

£200 a salon a month, plus about 1% of card payments

Proof

2,384 paying independents. 10 established salons piloting.

Gross margin

90%+ on subscriptions. About 50% on gross payments revenue at scale.

Payback

Under 6 months with independents. Still being proven with salons.

B

AI-native services

Early revenue
Price

£2,000 a month for marketing: Google Ads, Meta and analytics

Proof

£50k run-rate from established salons

Gross margin

70%+ after labour

Payback

Under 2 months, with clients won through Meta ads

C

AI agents

To prove
Price

Illustrative: £100 a month for the receptionist, £300 each for the AI CMO and CFO

Proof
  • Our AI CMO has shipped
  • Fresha’s AI receptionist: £80 a month
  • Owner.com ($2.3bn): from £190 a month
Gross margin

70%+ after inference

Payback

To prove

04 / The vision

One AI operating system that runs the whole salon.

AI-native services done for the salon, by our team and agents
Marketing£50k run-rate
FinanceNext
OperationsNext
AI agents
AI CMOShipped
AI CFOBuilding
AI ReceptionistNext
AI COO2027
Workflows
Fill tomorrow's empty slotsWin back lapsed clientsWrite and test the ads
Chase unpaid depositsReconcile the card machineProduce the monthly numbers
Answer every callBook and rebookFill a cancellation
Plan the rotaReorder stockTrack stylist targets
Software and payments
Bookings Clients Payments Messages

05 / The model

Moving ‘up market’ to salons can 25× our average revenue per customer to £10k a year.

SoftwareAgents and services

06 / The market

50k established UK salons. +25k are on legacy or generic software.

How established salons take bookings

07 / The competition

We are already taking market share from all legacy solutions.

Swipe to compare →

What a salon needsSoloMarketplacee.g. FreshaLegacy salon
softwaree.g. Timely
Generic
schedulere.g. Acuity
Ease of useOur wedgeYesYesNoLimited
Professional website and SEOOur wedgeYesNoNoLimited
AI agents doing the workOur wedgeYesPartly:AI receptionist onlyNoNo
Services delivered for themOur wedgeYesNoNoNo
Takes online bookingsYesYesYesYes
Built for salonsYesYesYesNo
The salon owns the clientYesNoYesYes
No commission per bookingYesNoYesYes
Solo’s paying customers who switched from themIndependent professionals, all time45%in total, incl. other tools27%Fresha 22%5%Timely, Ovatu3%Acuity, Wix

included partly not available

08 / The prize

20% of UK salons is a £100m revenue run-rate business.

50050,000
£2k a year£20k a year

Revenue run-rate

£100m
UK penetration20%of 50,000 UK salons
UK, US & EU penetration2%of ~490,000 salons

09 / The plan

We have a three-stage plan to put the business on a trajectory to £100m+.

Target revenue run-rate

£1.1m
£3.0m
£10m+
£100m
TodaySeptember 2026
10 salons piloting
Phase 1Oct 2026 to Jun 2027
Phase 22027 to 2028
Phase 32028 onwards
Objective
Establish an AI-led product and go-to-market in the UK. Set up in Q4 2026, scaling sales from January 2027.
Scale across the UK
Keep the UK focus while exploring international markets
Funding
£750k raise
Profits or further funding, depending on unit economics and the competitive landscape
Profits or further funding, depending on unit economics and the competitive landscape
Target run-rate
£3.0m
£10m+
£100m
Salons
210 established salons
1,000 established salons
10,000 established salons
ACV
£6k £500 a month
£7.5k
£10k

10 / Phase 1

Raising £750k now allows us to hit the ground running in January, which is peak switching season.

£0£60k
£800£3,000
£300£1,000

New salons a month
Revenue run-rate by September 2027
Break-even

Revenue run-rate, month by month

Solo independents, growing 5% a monthNew salons

Where the money goes

2 developers£20k a month
3 account executives£15k a month
1 agency lead, AI-native services£5k a month
Extra marketing
New costs from January

Why £750k? Phase 1 needs about £95k to reach break-even on plan, or about £235k if salons sign at half the pace. The rest covers Secret Spa’s winter low and leaves a buffer for margin of error.

11 / Where the group stands

Phase 1 takes the group to a £1m EBITDA run-rate by Q3 2027.

Annual run-rateQ3 ’26TodayQ3 ’27After Phase 1Change
Total revenue£3.6m£6.4m+£2.8m
Costs, including tech development£3.9m£5.4m+£1.5m
EBITDA, including tech development−£0.3m£1.0m+£1.3m

12 / The investment

What your investment could be worth.

£250k of the £750k is already committed.

Valuation£13.4mpre-money, fully diluted
Price per share£3.08minimum price, new ordinary shares
EISEligible30% income tax relief, no CGT after 3 years
£5k£250k
£5m£50m
2×20×

Your investment could be worth

£189k

in 2029, free of CGT under EIS

Return on cash invested7.5×£25k in
Return after EIS relief10.8×on a net cost of £17.5k

Illustrative only. These figures are not a forecast, a promise or financial advice. They assume your percentage of the company, on a fully diluted basis, stays the same, which ignores dilution from future funding rounds. They also assume the company is valued at your chosen multiple of its revenue run-rate at the end of 2029. Neither may happen.

Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. Investing in a private company is high risk. You could lose all of your investment, you are unlikely to receive dividends, your shareholding may be diluted, and you may not be able to sell your shares when you want to. You are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong.

EIS relief depends on your personal circumstances and on Solo Innovations Ltd keeping its qualifying status for three years, and it can be withdrawn. Tax rules can change. Take independent tax and financial advice before investing.

Questions investors ask

The details behind the case.

Why raise from existing shareholders?
Because existing shareholders came to us: £250k of the £750k was committed before we asked. Raising from people who already know the business is quicker than a VC process, so we can start hiring in Q4 and sell through January. A larger institutional round makes more sense once salon unit economics are proven.
How would I get my money back?
Through an exit, most likely a sale of the company. The natural buyers are larger salon and wellness software groups, payments companies and private equity, which have been active buyers of vertical software. A later funding round can also give shareholders a chance to sell some shares. There is no guaranteed exit or timeline, and private company shares can be hard to sell before one.
What still needs proving before the next round?
Repeatable salon sales, salon retention, delivery margins, salon acquisition costs and adoption of the planned products. The financing milestones and thresholds still need to be agreed.
Customer

Real product recording · Existing product for solopreneurs

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