Having set a Dragons’ Den record, London’s yuv attracts €10 million to accelerate salon-focused tech
yuv, a British beauty technology company developing a smart hair colour lab system for salons and freelancers, today announced the close of its €10 million ($12 million) Series A funding round.
The round was led by Nineyards Equity, with participation from yuv’s Founder Francisco Gimenez, existing investor VNV Global, and a network of strategic angels.
“This raise represents a pivotal moment for yuv,” said Francisco Gimenez, founder & CEO of yuv. “With the support of Nineyards Equity, VNV Global, and our investor network, we are doubling down on our mission to transform professional hair colour through sustainability, design, and technology. Our next chapter will bring yuv’s platform to more salons and freelancers across the UK, and soon to the U.S., where we see massive potential.”
In 2025, comparable investment activity in the European beauty and aesthetics sector included several mid-sized rounds, such as Innerskin in Paris, which raised €12.8 million to expand its network of aesthetics centres, and Ray Studios, also Paris-based, which secured €10 million to scale its tattoo-removal studios across Europe.
Although these companies operate primarily in skin-health and aesthetic-service delivery rather than salon hardware or professional hair-colour systems, they reflect a steady flow of capital – approximately €22.8 million – into beauty and wellness ventures across the continent.
Within this context, yuv’s €10 million Series A represents a distinct entry from the UK, focused on hardware-enabled, refillable, and software-driven salon technology, a niche for which EU-Startups has seen few directly comparable funding rounds in 2025.
Founded in 2021, yuv is a London-based beauty technology company transforming the professional hair colour market with hardware, AI-powered software, and refillable packaging. Its flagship product, the yuv Lab, is a smart dispensing system for salons and freelancers that delivers precise formulations through refillable cartridges and app-based controls.
Compact and app-connected, the system replaces single-use tubes with refillable aluminium cartridges, reportedly reducing waste while offering precise, customisable formulations at the touch of a button.
Designed for salons and freelancers, the platform combines hardware, AI-powered software, and Swiss-designed formulas, optimised for customisation, performance, and safety.
By pairing refillable packaging with intelligent data systems, yuv wants to help beauty professionals cut costs, streamline operations, and elevate creativity.
The new funding will accelerate yuv’s growth in the UK and support its U.S. expansion in 2026, scaling its patented platform and subscription model to a growing network of salons and freelancers worldwide, anticipating steady growth in the global salon hair care services market from €174.7 billion ($203.78 billion) in 2025 to €293 billion ($341.67 billion) by 2032.
Eric Sävendahl, Principal at Nineyards Equity, shares: “At Nineyards, we back category-defining companies with the potential to fundamentally reshape their industries. yuv is bringing true digital transformation to professional hair colour by combining hardware, colour and software into a platform that solves real pain points for salons and freelancing hairdressers alike. We are highly impressed by what Francisco and the team have accomplished so far, and are excited to support them as they scale in the UK, US and beyond.”
In October 2025, yuv made an appearance on Dragons’ Den, setting an all-time record for both the amount of financing offered (a combined €572k (£500k) at 2% equity from Steven Bartlett and Sara Davies) and the valuation (€28 million (£25 million)) achieved in the show’s 22-season history.
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