Planning to shift? These tech-enabled relocation startups can come to your rescue

Whether due to jobs or other reasons, home shifting is a costly and tedious task and one that is difficult to manage alone. 

Today, technology has become an integral part of the relocation industry. Besides streamlining the moving and tracking process, tech-enabled packers and movers can help with adding relocation benefits, easy administration, and more. 

Leveraging technology, cloud services, and artificial intelligence (AI), these startups are helping customers with transparent and hassle-free relocation services at their doorstep.

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Porter

Mumbai-based logistics startup Porter, founded in 2014 by Pranav Goel, Uttam Digga, and Vikas Choudhary, allows businesses to book vehicles on-demand to complete their intra-city logistic needs.

The startups work with FMCG, 3PLs, couriers, SMEs, ecommerce, traders, and cargo companies such as Urban Ladder, Aramex, Delhivery, Godrej, ITC, and Reliance, among others.

It is present across six cities, including Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Chennai.

In October 2021, Porter raised Rs 750 crore from Tiger Global, Vitruvian Partners, Sequoia Capital India, and Lightrock India to consolidate its position in the market, acquire talent, and expand operations.

Shift Freight

Noida-based Shift Freight aggregates movers and packers companies on its marketplace and connects them with consumers to provide on-demand shifting services.

Founded in 2020 by Avinash Raghav, the business-to-consumer (B2C) startup provides both intra-city and inter-city services, operational in Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, and Bengaluru. 

It charges between Rs 1,000 and Rs 2 lakh for its relocation services.

Shift Freight also provides soft loans and cashback offers to its employees on achieving certain performance benchmarks, including providing uniform clothing.

Its asset-light technology platform allows them to start services in new cities without hindrance. To ensure a smoother experience for its customers, it assigns a dedicated coordinator in the beginning to monitor the entire relocation process.

Shiftkarado

Gurugram-based ShiftKarado —founded in 2016 by Sahil Mithal, Atul Mithal, Aulina Mithal Sood, and Ashish Mullick—is a tech-enabled, end-to-end relocation service startup. 

The startup is built on a template-based model with a pre-default list of items set on configuration powered by data analytics.

Shiftkarado offers instant bookings, urban mobility, instant quotations, security, and transparency services. It uses a mix of in-house and outsourced fleet services for transportation.

The platform allows users to get instant pricing quotes upon sharing required details such as day, date, address, number of items, etc. Operating in cities, including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, etc., some of ShiftKarado’s clients include Prop Tiger, Dainik Bhaskar, and CIANS.

In 2019, Star Worldwide Group acquired ShiftKarado to capture a 15 percent market share in the Indian relocation market by 2022.

HappyLocate

Founded by Ajay Tiwari and Sainadh Duvvuru in 2016, Bengaluru-based HappyLocate helps corporations automate and manage end-to-end employee relocation.

The startup focuses on significantly improving the relocation experience in India through three value systems: convenience, transparency, and reliability.

It claims to serve over 15,000 pin codes in India with clients, including United Breweries, ITC Infotech, Coca-Cola, Diageo, and Airbus, to name a few.

In May 2022, HappyLocate raised $1.1 million in a pre-Series A round led by Inflection Point Ventures, VM Ventures, and RMZ management to enhance operational excellence and corporate reach.

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Pikkol

Founded by Deepu Chandran, Jayaram Kasi Visweswaran, Suraj Valimbe, and Siby Mathew, Bengaluru-based Pikkol is a relocation services aggregator and a tech-centric logistics startup.

The startup aims to create the technological, operational, and analytical backbone to facilitate all relocation requirements in the market.

It provides standardised service experiences and tailormade relocation packages for customers. Besides, its algorithm captures the investment and computes the truck size, prices, and packing requirements. Once the user confirms the booking, based on its proprietary algorithm, the platform allots a team to ensure a hassel-free relocation experience for the users.

Pikkol’s flagship solution—its proprietary pricing algorithm—brings in transparent pricing and manual estimation processes.

The startup operates in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai, among other locations. It also has operations in countries, including the US, UK, Singapore, and the Middle East.