The leading online booking platform for mobile hair and makeup in the UK, Glamdeva, has set its sights on a major year of expansion. The beauty tech startup recently appointed a leading figure from the world of finance.
Founded in 2019 by Gurinder Randeva, Glamdeva has welcomed Louise Santaana as its new CEO. The former Head of Private Banking and Lending at Lloyds aims to double Glamdeva’s operations over the next year and create multiple new jobs at its Cardiff headquarters.
Louise Santaana, who is a qualified lawyer turned finance expert, will explore strategic partnerships, new advertising, and marketing campaigns. She will also use her skills and experience working with high-growth businesses to explore the potential of attracting external finance long term.
She has bold plans to increase the number of artists and stylists on Glamdeva’s platform to over 1,000 and will look to leverage the firm’s exceptional customer experience journey to expand its community across the UK. Other plans in place are to expand the offering from makeup and hair to include the increasingly popular world of aesthetics, nails and eyebrows.
Louise, who has also worked in law, commercial banking, and corporate finance, explained the firm’s major growth plans for 2022. “This is such an exciting time for Glamdeva, with the technology firmly established and a growing number of users and stylists/artists wanting to join our community. 2022 is going to be the year we scale.”
“In a fast-paced world where people don’t have time to go into salons or the city centre for an appointment, we can bring beauty and hair services to your door using our easy-to-use online marketplace,” she added.
She revealed what else Glamdeva has planned for the year: “The feedback from people who use us is superb and one of my key roles will be to raise the profile of the brand and our services, not to mention looking at strategic partnerships where we can offer a solution. This could be a TV production company, entertainment venue or a wedding planner for example.
“As a society, we are increasingly turning to online marketplaces to access services – my job is to work with Gurinder and the team to ensure that when people look for beauty and hair services they choose Glamdeva.
Louise also shared her love for beauty salons: “This opportunity is a bit of a guilty pleasure. I’ve always wanted to own my own beauty salon…this role gives me the chance to support and grow hundreds of mobile salons.”
Glamdeva.com enables clients to enter their booking details and compare real-time prices of 400 approved beauty and hair specialists within seconds. It displays different local and national professionals, along with their prices, recent photos of their work, and their distance from your location. Users who are happy with the price and artist, they can pay using a secure gateway, and direct communication to the stylist is given. For hair and make-up specialists interested in getting involved, the process is equally as simple.
The professionals’ expertise and experience are verified by a member of the Glamdeva onboarding team before they are given access to the cloud-based booking system where they can control everything about their business. This includes the services they offer, prices, their availability, and operating days & times. Their coverage and the maximum miles they will cover can also be set on this booking system.
“This is a fantastic coup for our business at exactly the right time as we look to scale quickly. Louise has a wealth of finance and business experience that she can bring to the company, not to mention a network of contacts that we can use to explore new partnerships and opportunities,” Glamdeva founder, Gurinder Randeva said about Santaana’s appointment.
“Whilst there is fierce competition in our sector, none of our rivals can match our nationwide coverage or the simplicity of the customer journey. We have also added a new makeup tools brand in GLAMX, something we started during the pandemic and is really growing in popularity,” she added.
Please visit www.glamdeva.com for more information.
