• Zeel

  Participated · Series A · Apr 2016

  Zeel is an NYC-based on-demand massage company that allows customers to book 60-, 75- and 90-minute Swedish, deep tissue, prenatal, sports and couples massages through its iPhone and Android apps and on zeel.com. Therapists in its network are vetted, experienced, background-checked and licensed in their state of practice, and are available every day of the year with start times from 8:00am to 10:30pm. The company offers an in-home membership, Massage Zeelot, which includes a Zeel massage a month for a year plus a free massage table; massage credits roll over, never expire, and can be gifted. Zeel currently has over 5,100 massage therapists in its network across Boston, Chicago, Denver, the NYC tri-state area, the San Francisco Bay Area, Greater Los Angeles, San Diego, Palm Springs, Miami–Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Tampa, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Austin, Phoenix, Washington D.C. and surrounding areas. The company recently raised $10M in a Series A and intends to use the funds to expand into new cities, starting with Austin. CEO Samer Hamadeh leads the company. Zeel operates a mobile app that offers on-demand, in-home massage bookings, launched in New York in April 2013 after beginning as a marketplace for alternative health practitioners in early 2012. The company vets therapists (required to be licensed or certified where Zeel operates) and verifies customers through Experian to address safety concerns around in-home visits. Prices for a 60-minute in-home massage range roughly $141–$159 in Manhattan and $117–$130 in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Zeel offers membership plans (e.g., $121.88/month in NYC; $99.12/month in Miami, LA, and San Francisco). Therapists reportedly can earn up to 75% more than at a spa; Zeel has grown to tens of thousands of massages delivered and maintains roughly 420 therapists in New York, 170 in South Florida, 150 in Los Angeles, and nearly 150 in the Bay Area. Demand skews to evenings, with about 72% of orders after 5 p.m. and roughly 26% between 9:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. The company is expanding beyond New York into the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Miami and plans to continue rolling out to more geographies while preparing to raise a larger funding round in early 2015. Zeel operates an online marketplace and booking engine for alternative healthcare and wellness providers, letting consumers find and book massage therapists, personal trainers, nutritionists, acupuncturists and similar practitioners. The service lets users browse vetted Expert profiles, see prices, check real-time appointment availability, read member reviews, and book online. Zeel also hosts a Q&A forum answered by Zeel Experts and maintains an alternative healthcare library covering treatments from acupuncture to Zen Shiatsu. Verticals include massage therapy, personal training, yoga, Pilates, acupuncture, and nutrition counseling, and the platform highlights treatments for stress, pain, obesity and other conditions. The company takes a booking fee of around ten percent on each appointment booked and reports a network of 1,000 Experts enabled for online booking in the New York metropolitan area while connecting consumers to an additional 30,000 qualified practitioners. Zeel has raised $1.5 million in funding from a group of angel and strategic investors.

No current team members are available.