MindBody, a Salesforce-like CRM for health & wellness, takes $50M more

Small businesses are under increasing pressure to go digital or risk losing their clientele to the franchise down the street. Tech-savvy customers expect to book appointments online and pay with a swipe of a credit card.

The San Luis Obispo, Calif.-based MindBody has small businesses (spas, yoga studios, and so on) covered. And the company has pocketed an additional $50 million in funding today to accelerate its global expansion.

MindBody sells a suite of marketing, scheduling, analytics, networking, and point of sale services. According to chief executive officer Rick Stollmeyer, over 30,000 businesses around the world have signed up. Prior to starting the company, Stollmeyer worked as an engineering team lead and as a submarine officer in the U.S. Navy.

MindBody, which has been around since 2001, faces tough competition from customer relationship management (CRM) behemoths, like Salesforce.com and SugarCRM. Unlike these vendors, it specifically caters to clients in the health and wellness sector. A crop of new rivals, such as Schedulicity, SalonBooker, Appointment Plus, and Groupon Scheduler, have also emerged in recent years. However, these companies are focused on scheduling tools, which is just one aspect of MindBody’s business.

The new funding comes from a combination of Silicon Valley and international investment firms, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, Catalyst Investors, W Capital Partners and Montreux Equity Partners. This round brings the company’s funding total to just under $110 million.