Movem has been acquired 🎉

After a few months of deflecting rumours, I can finally share the most exciting news that’s ever happened to Movem: we’ve been acquired.

I say we because the entire team, myself included, are staying together to continue the mission we started.

Movem has been bought by Barbon Insurance Group — the market leader for tenant referencing and specialist lettings insurance. Movem has joined their current two brands in the industry: Homelet and Rentshield.

In May I published this article, which outlined our reinvigorated mission; to build the best tenant referencing experience ever, and push forward the process we pioneered: the instant reference.

But we haven’t been working on this new direction in secret — I’ve been really open with our competitors for months, and shouted about Movem whenever I got half a chance. Naturally, I ended up talking to most of the ‘traditional’ referencing companies.

During these discussions, it became clear to me that under Barbon ownership and guidance, Movem will have long-term security, resources and experience far beyond what is achievable by a start-up in isolation.

In summary:

• Movem will remain as a separate brand, and our entire team is staying together, in Brighton.
• We’re all dedicated to continuing to build and support both our instant referencing product for letting agents, and our partner API.
• We’re now supported by our new colleagues at Barbon, and are hugely excited about future collaborative products. ⚡

I believe that we’ve already changed the face of tenant referencing. Years ago people violently argued that it’d never happen, but through perseverance we’ve shown that it has.

Now, with Barbon behind us, Movem will be in a great position to lead the market niche we pioneered.

Finally, I want to thank our 520 shareholders, who believed in us when we couldn’t raise money anywhere else. Whether you invested £10 or £100,000, your support kept our company alive long enough to convince the world we weren’t crazy.

Thank you for everything you’ve done for us. Please stay in touch.