European health and beauty online booking platform Wahanda has acquired an app development consultancy called Lemon Labs as part of a strategic focus on becoming a mobile-first company.

Wahanda has more than 8,000 spas and salons signed up to its health and beauty marketplace and is growing at 280 per cent year-on-year. It has bought the Lithuanian-based Lemon Labs company as it bids to continue its expansion across Europe.

“We have been working with the Lemon Labs team for the past six months in building our consumer and business apps and the results speak for themselves,” said CEO and founder of Wahanda Lopo Champalimaud. “Last week we broke through the 150,000 downloads mark and that number is growing 20 per cent month-on-month.

“The future of Wahanda is in mobile and we are delighted the Lemon Labs team is now officially an integrated part of our technology team and can continue to lead our product thinking and development,” added Champalimaud.

Tomas Dirvonskas, co-founder of Lemon Labs said: “Wahanda’s bookings show that 50 per cent of all hair and beauty appointments are now made via a mobile device and that a fifth of consumers who make appointments now expect to be seen within three hours of making that booking.

“By becoming a part of the in-house team we will be able to shape Wahanda’s product offering to an even greater degree,” added Dirvonskas.

According to a statement from Wahanda, a number of new design and product updates will be unveiled for both the iOS and Android apps in the coming weeks.

The Lemon Labs deal is the second acquisition for Wahanda in recent months. The UK firm bought its German equivalent Salonmeister in November 2014 after raising US$26m (€23m, £17m) in investment funding last year.

Further expansion plans in Europe are in the pipeline, with a plan to open in six new markets over the next six months.