Fintech has fragmented into increasingly specialized, cucumber-sliced micro-services, ranging from embedded buy-now-pay-later loans to specialized neo banks to yet more payment processing systems. What opportunities remain for innovators in such a fragmented landscape? One U.K. startup, Just Move In, zoomed out and realised that the home had been overlooked by everyone in the industry. And it has now raised an $8 million Series A funding round led by Eos Ventures (a global insurtech VC) for its home setup services.
The strategic backing of Eos Ventures means it will expand into embedded financial services, simplifying processes such as securing credit and insurance products. The company says it’s now projected to process over 400,000 home moves in 2025.
The ‘trick’ — if there is one — is that while comparison sites provide options for people switching utilities and insurance providers, they often create a fragmented and time-consuming for users. By contrast, Just Move In creates a single point of entry to managing multiple services.
Also participating in the round were Wayra (the innovation arm of Telefónica), and Second Century Ventures. It also has continued support from The FSE Group and angels including Simon Rogerson and Chris Hulatt, founders of Octopus Group. Its last funding round was in 2022, when it raised a £4 million seed round (around $5 million at current exchange rates).
In turns, Just Move In embeds services from Openrent (the biggest letting agency in the UK) and real estate agent Hamptons, as well as Alto (a residential property software, data, and insight company) and Anyvan.
“When you move in, there are dozens of services that need to be connected such as council tax, water, sewage, gas, energy, broadband, home insurance. The list goes on,” co-founder Ross Nichols told TechCrunch over a call. “We have built a platform that helps to streamline that process.”
Just Move In takes the information about the property from the estate agent’s CRM and analyses the services available. “So you come into our journey, and rather than having to end up on a dozen plus different websites to complete all those transactions and repeat your payment details, you do it once, and it’s set up for you,” said Nichols.
“The main benefit for the customer is they’re saving a huge amount of time and it’s free service. We get paid in the same way that a price comparison site works. So we are competing indirectly now with the big price comparison sites, but we’re embedded into the flow of the move,” he added.
Just move In is now managing over 300,000 moves in the UK, close to 10% of the UK market.
“The plan is to take this to Europe,” Nichols told TehCrunch.
In a statement, James Tootell, Partner at Eos Ventures, said: “Just Move In’s innovative approach to combining home services with financial products represents the future of consumer-focused FinTech.”
