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The venture capital market is still interested in proptech, evidenced by MoveEasy’s closing on $7 million in Series A funding.
The funding round was led by Moderne Ventures with strategic participation by The Travelers Companies, according to an announcement sent exclusively to Inman. Moderne closed on a $200 million raise in August of 2021.
The relocation concierge and home management solution will put the money to use to “accelerate product development,” it stated, and reach new industry categories, such as insurance and mortgage.
In a press release, MoveEasy CEO Venkatesh Ganapathy, compared his product to a personal finance app, in that it serves as a guide to help users make the best decisions about their home, a major monetary commitment. “That’s what we’ve created with MoveEasy, an all-in-one platform simplifying every aspect of homeownership,” he said.
MoveEasy’s web-based and companion mobile experience integrates with a number of popular transaction management and real estate business applications to smartly and accurately move data from the deal to what comes next—moving. The software eliminates much of the manual input hassles that accompany use of competing products, which tend to be put into use after a deal is closed, risking data integrity and lagging client engagement.
Using a series of APIs, engaging front-end experiences practical workflows, and dedicated human advisors, MoveEasy doesn’t require users to leave its interface, empowering them to connect utilities and establish services in merely a few actions.
MoveEasy empowers homebuyers to compare hundreds of service providers, including, home insurance, internet and cable, home protection, energy, utilities, solar and home improvement. It also includes a proactive savings monitoring tool to consistently scan for new discounts and opportunities to save.
Hiring will be another point of emphasis of the funding, but according to Ganapathy, hiring decisions will be made carefully, based on where roles need to be filled.
“I want to be conservative, and ensure the future of the 78 employees we have right now is secure,” Ganapathy said in a phone call with Inman. “I don’t want to make any crazy decisions then have to lay off a bunch of people.”
In the fall of 2022, MoveEasy extended its reach into the home ownership phase, creating a series of features to assist new owners in overseeing the operational systems and financial dynamics of their home.
In a September statement, MoveEasy described its latest homeowner-centric features collectively as “a holistic view of every decision they need to make as homeowners — whether they are buying, selling, moving or managing their existing home.”
For example, MoveEasy can use an inspection report from the transaction as a basis for ongoing areas of focus for a homeowner, especially important as more sellers opt for closing credits toward fixes as opposed to having them done during escrow.
Despite an uncertain end the 2022 real estate market, the technology companies that support seem to be taking up confident positions as much of the venture capital raised in the last two years is finding places to work. Milestones, a company similar to MoveEasy that was in “stealth mode” for three years, closed on $10 million in July and in September, property management software company DoorLoop closed on $20 million.
On a phone call, Ganapathy stated that venture capitalists he spoke to are being much more careful about how they disburse funds.
“The focus on revenue was [more important] than earlier,” he said “Before, it was all about your 50,000 foot vision, and now it’s like, diving deeper into numbers, can this be sustained, how is the market impacting numbers?”
The success of a software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies, for example, is easier to predict, Ganapathy said, because money is recurring. That resulted in his more transaction-based move management products coming under greater scrutiny.
“Even though we had the home ownership platform [as funding talks started], it had just launched, and our proof was in the moving side of things,” he said. “But that’s where Travelers came in, as we’ve been working with them as a partner, and they got to see us closer for longer, and then Moderne got to see that bigger vision.”
MoveEasy states an increase in revenue growth since 2020 of 400 percent, citing more than 1 million homeowners in its user base. It also has enterprise-level relationships with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Century 21, Howard Hanna, Douglas Elliman and RE/MAX.
Ganapathy told Inman his plan is to pause on in-house generation of consumer features to take more time to hear what the clients of its real estate customers have to say.
“I do believe our product is pretty holistic today, but time will tell what features consumers use,” he said. “There was time when we may have just added features, but now, we want to roll it out to all of these agents, have them add their past clients to utilize the service, and learn what works and what doesn’t.”
MoveEasy previously raised $3.5 million in seed funding from investors, including, Breaktrail Ventures, New Valley Ventures, Loud Capital and Pete Kight, according to the release.
