Deal in focus: Movago and Movinga go head-to-head

Katharina Semke
27 November 2015

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As the home-moving services space becomes increasingly digitised, two German startups – Movago and Movinga – are competing to dominate the market. Katharina Semke reports

Movago and Movinga both launched this year with the same business model: acting as an intermediary between house moving services and customers, as well as executing the jobs themselves. But another common trait between the pair is the support of venture capital heavyweights.

Movago's €7m series-A, which took place last month, was led by DN Capital. Alongside the VC, existing backers Holtzbrinck Ventures and Piton Capital invested, as well as business angels Philipp Magin, Ronny Lange, Christian Bertermann, Hakan Koc and Christopher Muhr.

It is understood that Movago, which was launched in July, was thought up by Quandoo founders Philipp Magin and Ronny Lange. However, given the duo are still managing Quandoo following its sale to Japanese-Recruit Holdings in March, which saw its former VC backers Holtzbrinck, Piton and DN sell their stakes, these same investors are now supporting Movago, with Magin and Lange named as angel investors.

It is not uncommon for successful founders to start a new business with the backing of their previous investors. One example is Alex Chesterman, who received backing from Octopus for his first company Screen Select, which was later known as LoveFilm. After both founder and investor successfully exited the business, they collaborated again for Chesterman's new project, property website Zoopla. However, in Movago's case, Quandoo has named Maximilian Lanig and Carsten Bild as the official founders of Movago.

According to its latest statement, Movago employs 100 people, operates across Germany, Austria, France, the UK and Italy, and has worked on around 2,000 moves. Accrording to the company, the capital raised in its series-A round will be used to further accelerate its expansion.

Moving to Movinga
Competitor Movinga launched six months earlier than Movago, in January 2015. Movinga's first funding round in August, which was announced three days after its rival's, drew interest from more than a dozen VCs.

Simon Schmincke of investor Earlybird told unquote" in August: "They had, I think, seven or eight offers and were able to choose. In the end they picked us because we have a local presence in Berlin." Alongside Earlybird, investing business angels included former Rocket Internet managing director Florian Heinemann, of Project A Ventures; MyVideo founder Christian Vollmann; and Phillipp Kreibohm, who established Home24.

Earlybird was attracted to Movinga because of its rapid growth, Schmincke stated, claiming that the company had more than 100 employees and eight-digit revenues in August. According to an official statement, the number of employees has more than doubled to 250 in the meantime.

Less than two months after the first round, in October, Movinga announced its next capital injection of €6m from existing backers and a new investor, Global Founders Capital, a VC incubator that was established by Rocket Internet's Oliver and Marc Samwer.

The startup currently operates in the DACH region, the UK, France and Italy. The fresh capital is intended to support Movinga's entry in the Benelux and Scandinavia. Furthermore, the founders are keen to enter the US market in H1 2016. To achieve their ambitious plans, Movinga added a new member to its team, Finn Age Hänsel, who previously worked for startup incubator Epic Companies. He has joined the company as an investor as well as managing director.

Given the rapid pace at which both companies are growing, the race is on for one to dominate the market, especially given the strength of backers on each side. However, given Movinga's more ambitious plans to expand geographically – stretching out as far as the US – it could be that each startup finds a way to move into their own homes.