Taylor Wessing has advised Wahanda, Europe’s largest hair and beauty marketplace, and its key shareholders on a nine-figure deal which sees Recruit become the sole investor in the business and which represents a highly successful exit for the other institutional investors. Wahanda secured a further $46 million investment from Recruit which will support its ambitious growth strategy.

Wahanda’s management team will continue to own a significant stake in the business and remains fully committed to continuing to drive the success of the online bookings platform, which has seen 300% year-on-year growth.

Lopo Champalimaud, CEO and founder of Wahanda, said: "Recruit invested in July 2014 and have been very active investors. We are extremely excited to continue growing the business with them.  This is a great deal for everyone involved – employees and investors, and, most importantly, our customers and merchants."

The deal is the latest in a line of significant matters on which Taylor Wessing has advised Wahanda in the last 24 months. As well as advising on funding rounds, it follows mandates on Wahanda's acquisition of Germany’s Salonmeister in October 2014, Austria’s Beautycheck just two weeks ago and the acquisition earlier this year of LemonLabs, the leading Lithuanian mobile app development agency, which substantially strengthened Wahanda’s mobile leadership.

Corporate partner, and Private Equity head, James Goold led the team which included corporate associates Jonny Bethell, Adam Griffiths and Katherine Sweetnam, tax partner Richard Carson and tax associate James Stewart, and technology partner Graham Hann with associate Neil Hawley.

Benjamin Leaver, CFO of Wahanda, said: "James and the team were magnificent. In a complex transaction, we got consistently brilliant advice - everyone of the Taylor Wessing team feels like part of our team at Wahanda. I am looking forward to doing much more work together in the months and years to come."