Notion Capital and NEA Invest in MOVE Guides

LONDON, Dec. 4, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- MOVE Guides announced today that it has closed a $1.8 million seed funding round from Notion Capital and NEA, bringing its total funding to $2.4 million. The company's mission is to transform the $40bn employee relocation industry with a software-as-a-service ('SaaS') platform that leads to significantly reduced costs, greater productivity and improved employee satisfaction.

MOVE Guides has grown quickly since the service was released a year ago. Clients, ranging from large multi-national firms to start-ups, have already completed thousands of employee moves with an employee satisfaction rating of 99%. MOVE Guides is headquartered in London, and the service is now available for moves to more than 80 cities on six continents.

"Since founding the company in 2011, MOVE Guides has grown from an idea to a global platform recognized across the industry," said Brynne Herbert, Founder and CEO of MOVE Guides, and herself an American expat in London. "With their experience in building great enterprise businesses like MessageLabs and Workday, Notion and NEA bring exactly the expertise that we now need to accelerate growth, and I'm excited to welcome them as investors."

In addition to Notion Capital and NEA, a number of angels also participated, including serial entrepreneur and investor Sherry Coutu CBE (SV2UK), Tom Hulme (IDEO), Sean Park (Anthemis Group), Dale Murray CBE (Omega Logic) and Kevin Eyres (LinkedIn).

"The service takes advantage of three of the biggest trends in the technology industry -- cloud computing, mobile and internationalisation -- and meets the expectations of a new generation of employees," said Jos White, Partner at Notion Capital. "In this way, we believe they have what it takes to disrupt their industry and build a very big business."

"It takes great people to build great companies, and relocation has always been one of the most challenging—and often frustrating—aspects of the hiring process," said Patrick Chung, Partner at NEA. "We are excited to work with Brynne and the team at MOVE Guides to build on the company's tremendous momentum and capture the global market opportunity for a next-generation relocation service."

MOVE Guides was borne out of Herbert's own frustration moving internationally as an expat investment banker and founded during her MBA at London Business School.  The customizable software-as-a-service platform brings together technology and service to provide a great relocation experience to both employees and companies.

"Companies are moving more and more people with constrained budgets and with an increasing focus on the employee experience," says Herbert.  "This is a hard equation to balance, and MOVE Guides provides the first viable alternative to expensive relocation management company incumbents." 

This year MOVE Guides won awards for "Technology Innovation in Relocation," and "Best Female Investment in the UK." Brynne Herbert also won a trifecta of industry awards for "Rising Star in Global Mobility" in the US, Asia and EMEA.

About MOVE Guides

MOVE Guides is an employee relocation platform that brings together content, suppliers and service to help companies relocate and onboard employees.  Services include international and domestic relocation solutions for new hires, permanent moves or fixed assignments. We believe employee relocation should be easy and affordable.

About Notion Capital

Notion is an entrepreneur-backed venture capital firm focused on high potential businesses in the Cloud Computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) markets. The Notion team has unique expertise and experience in the Cloud Computing market having founded, built and exited two highly successful businesses in the space – Star and MessageLabs. Companies within Notion's portfolio include Brightpearl, Duedil, eSellerPro, Shutl, The Currency Cloud and Tradeshift. For more information go to: www.notioncapital.com

About NEA

New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) partners with entrepreneurs to build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With more than $13 billion in committed capital, NEA invests in technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company's lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm's long track record includes more than 175 portfolio company IPOs and more than 300 acquisitions. For additional information, visit www.nea.com.

SOURCE New Enterprise Associates, Inc.; MOVE Guides