Why HoneyBook’s $140M in ARR may finally justify its $2.4B ZIRP-era valuation

HoneyBook, a startup last valued in late 2021 at $2.4 billion, told TechCrunch that it hit $140 million in annualized recurring revenue (ARR).

This makes HoneyBook one of the few startups with peak-VC-era valuations to report their financials after the market cooled. 

Many startups that raised in 2021 and have not raised since then remain under pressure to generate the revenue needed to validate their previously inflated valuations, and many may not survive much longer.

But HoneyBook is doing so well, it sees no reason to still keep its revenue metrics secret, says HoneyBook CEO and co-founder, Oz Alon.

HoneyBook offers business management software for independent service-based entrepreneurs such as photographers, event planners, and interior designers. Its last raise was a $155 million Series E from Tiger Global Management about three and a half years ago.

Given that HoneyBook is still valued at $2.4 billion, the latest ARR figure implies a valuation multiple of about 17 times ARR.

While there are no hard-and-fast rules for valuing private companies, investors say that late-stage pre-AI era software companies are generally priced not much differently from their public market comparables. Meritech SaaS Index shows that companies growing at 25% or more a year are now priced at a median of 13 times their ARR.

So what could possibly justify the slightly higher-than-average multiple for HoneyBook? One word: AI. This week, the company introduced new AI functionality that helps users decide how to price services and serve their customers better.  

The company claims it is uniquely positioned to help entrepreneurs make business decisions with AI because it has data on how similar small business owners price their services and grow their client lists.

HoneyBook’s AI is embedded into its current offering that includes a CRM, handles billing and payments, and gives eligible users access to the funds for business growth.

Jeff Crowe, senior managing partner at Norwest and a HoneyBook investor, believes the company can turbo-charge its business with AI.

“Solopreneurs, like photographers, don’t have the time or the business savvy” to think strategically about how to grow their business, Crowe said. 

The hope is that the new functionality will help HoneyBook’s existing users grow their own businesses, and as a result, the startup will make more money from the larger volume of transactions it processes.