MoveWise
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Movewise was a London-based proptech startup founded in 2018 by Tom Scarborough. It was a 'tech-enabled' property sales management service that worked with estate agents: identifying the best local agent for each property, managing multi-agent processes and sales progression, charging a 0.25% fee on top of the agent's commission. Backed by angels to the tune of £3 million (including Hambro Perks, Indeed co-founder Paul Forster and LoveFilm co-founder Simon Franks), it listed £60 million of UK properties with an 80% sales rate, employed 14 people and reached £1 million in annual revenue — yet founder Tom Scarborough shut the business down in 2023.
02 / MoveWise FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Movewise closed not for lack of growth but for lack of revenue quality. Scarborough blamed low-quality, lumpy revenue: each transaction was unique, could fail at any point in a 6-9 month process, and the bulk of revenue arrived only on completion — so revenue forecasting was weak and it was difficult to raise institutional capital to fund expansion. Landlord stock (much via a deal with the NRLA) had narrow margins, and that funnel could not be expanded; the only alternative was heavy marketing spend for homeowner and landlord clients, which investor funds could not finance. When existing investors declined to back the company further, Scarborough rejected a smaller, dilutive funding offer and shut Movewise down.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Company founded
Tom Scarborough founds Movewise in London as a tech-enabled property sales management service.
- Seed round
Movewise raises £600,000, bringing total funding to £1.1 million, from Hambro Perks, Paul Forster and Simon Franks.
- Shutdown
Founder Tom Scarborough shuts down Movewise despite a funding offer and strong growth; low-quality revenue and the inability to raise institutional capital end the business (14 employees, £1M annual revenue).
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Movewise was backed by angels to the tune of £3 million and had annual revenue of £1 million when it shut down. No audited loss figure with disclosed subject, period and basis was extracted from available coverage — the £3M is capital raised, not loss.