Movinga, The European Online Removals Startup, Picks Up $25M Series B Round Led By Index

Movinga, the online removals startup that claims to be a leader in its native Germany but also operates in numerous other European countries, such as Austria, Switzerland, U.K., France and Italy, has picked up $25 million in Series B funding.

The round is being led by Index Ventures, with participation from previous backers who include the likes of Earlybird VC, Heilemann Ventures, and Global Founders Capital (the venture arm of Rocket Internet), along with various angel investors.

Founded just a year ago by Bastian Knutzen and Chris Maslowski, Movinga is attempting to move home removals online with a consumer-facing brand that let’s you get an instant quote and book your home removal without the need for an in-person home inspection and with Movinga overseeing and taking responsibility for the whole process. Behind the scenes it works with an array of removal partners, helping them fill spare capacity and sending new business their way.

In a call with Knutzen, he told me that it’s Movinga’s technology that potentially gives the startup an edge over home removal competitors.

Firstly, using data and what sounds like an element of machine learning, the company is able to offer realtime quotes based on a limited amount of information and, crucially, without asking for a full itinerary or sending somebody to visit a person’s home before hand.

Instead, using the vast amount of data it’s already accumulated, for smaller properties Movinga can produce a reliable quote just by knowing how many rooms a house has, how many people live at the property and where the person is moving from and to.

The second aspect relates to Movinga’s routing algorithm, which looks to fill moving companies’ spare capacity, specifically in relation to aggregating smaller removal jobs or ensuring that each sides of the journey are exploited.

Often times, a removal company will drive to a city empty handed or make the return journey without any cargo. By matching jobs to both routes, much less money is left on the table. Of course, this is only possible with scale.

These efficiencies are then passed on to customers, who benefit from potentially lower removal prices, while removal firms can increase margins through much smarter routing. Think of Movinga’s tech as sitting at the intersection of the demand-side and supply-side of the home removal equation.

Meanwhile, Movinga says it plans to use today’s new investment to accelerate business development and for further international rollout.

In a statement, Index Ventures’ Timm Schipporeit adds: “We firmly believe in their vision to build Europe’s leading marketplace for removals, a huge category which had yet to be addressed. Bastian and the team offer customers a vastly enhanced and seamless experience when it comes to requesting a price, booking and conducting a move. Similarly, Movinga provides leading removal companies with a comprehensive end-to-end marketing, booking and planning platform, creating extraordinary efficiencies for all parties.”