MOVE Guides, which competes with Moveline (a TechStars company), is about moving people and families for work internationally – business relocation in other words. The market is – according to MOVE Guides – worth more than £40bn annually. That means that if expats were a country, that country would be one of the most wealthy and mobile in the world – international business moves are rarely done on the cheap. So today MOVE Guides announces it’s raised £400,000 seed funding – all while founder Brynne Herbert successfully completed her MBA at London Business School. Not bad.
The round was led by Kevin Eyres (ex-LinkedIn MD, Europe). Others who participated include Sherry Coutu, Sean Park (Zoopla, MyBuilder, Anthemis, etc.), Dale Murray (co-founder of pay-as-you-go technology company, Omega Logic), Alex Viall (co-founder of Complinet), Tom Hulme of IDEO and others.
The site launches today in private alpha for those granted access codes (we’ll try to get some for readers, watch this space). It comes on the heels of June’s launch of Moveline, a Tech Stars portfolio company offering price comparison for US domestic shipping.
MOVE Guides differs from Moveline in that it offers a few more services, end-to-end-management and focus on the international market. Being based out of London, one of the world’s most international cities, helps.
Herbert says the startups wil focus on London inbound moves and worldwide removals, and plans a Series A in 15-18 months for international expansion for full moves to/from other cities.
Brynne , an American-born, former finance professional, has lived in six cities and speaks four languages. She was inspired to do the startup after her own experiences.
“I arrived in the UK to a short-term let without hot water or internet. And I couldn’t get a bank account or mobile phone without a permanent address,” she says. “In a moment of frustration, I asked my husband why it was so hard to organize moving and so easy to organize travel. And he said, I should change it.” We’ll see…