Moving is the worst.
Even after you sort through finding a new apartment, struggle through the moving process, and manage to get your new place settled, there are still many tasks awaiting you. Remember that whole mail thing? And your utility accounts? And your magazine subscriptions?
That’s why Updater is hitting the scene with a $8 million Series A round from SoftBank, Second Century Ventures (which represents the investment arm of the National Association of Realtors), IA Ventures, and Commerce Ventures.
But what does Updater do?
Well, instead of calling up your cable company and your bank and running to the post office to change your address, Updater offers movers a complete dashboard for the moving experience.
With Updater, users can change their address online, switch over their bank account information, cable, and other utilities, and make sure their magazine subscriptions show up at the house.
As it stands now, Updater either integrates directly with or has information about 60,000 different vendors.
According to founder David Greenberg, the 45 million Americans who are moving this year will each have to reach out to between 10 and 15 different vendors and services each time they move. Updater condenses all of those processes into a single dashboard.
The service is entirely free to users, and will generate revenue through native advertising. The idea is simple: when you move, moreso than any other time in your life, your loyalties to brands are up in the air. If you’ve been going to Home Depot for years, and there is a Loews around the corner, you may very well switch.
That said, Updater will sign on brands and then surface those brands and vendors to you based on your move, your location, and your life stage. After all, moves often come with a big life transition like a new baby or a marriage. This type of data is super valuable to brands, and will be used (anonymized and aggregated) to make Updater a more informative experience while still providing value to brands.
Updater previously raised a $2 million seed round, bringing the company’s total funding to $10 million.