Shedul aims to make it easier to book a haircut than it is to order an Uber - and several investors have already backed the new software platform. Shedul has raised more than $6 million in funding. 

The booking platform is free to salons and spas, and aims to make the booking process easier for customers. The start-up, which is based in Dubai, just closed a round of Series-A financing led by Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP) and backed by Dubai's BECO Capital and San Francisco-based Lumia Capital. The new round of funding follows an earlier seed round also lead by MEVP.

The platform launched in 2015, and provides small- and medium-sized business operations with intuitive, free-to-use software designed to "take the hassle out of running a business by managing appointment bookings, point-of-sale, customer records, human resources, inventory, and financial reporting," the company states.

In under two years, Shedul.com has signed up a user base of over 40,000 merchants in more than 120 countries, most of whom learned about the platform by word of mouth. More than half of its users are in the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

Co-founder and CEO William Zeqiri said he's excited by the growth, but not surprised. "Good free software spreads quickly," Zeqiri said. "We're solving a critical pain point for small businesses by redefining how they engage with customers through technology."

Zeqiri and co-founder Nick Miller, the company's COO, adds, "We have merchants who have over 80% of their bookings made online by customers," he said. "The convenience factor increases customer engagement and directly results in more revenue to the merchant."

The founders say they plan to use the funds from the recent round of financing to scale their operations and expand product development.

Photo: Founders William Zeqiri and Nick Miller (PRNewsfoto/Surge Ventures Inc)