Move AI, which uses artificial intelligence to make moving easier, has raised $1.4 million in a pre-seed round led by MIT machine learning expert Anmol Madan and others.
The Alexandria. Va., was founded in 2022 by CEO Phil Salesses, a former Apple executive with an M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab. Move AI fancies itself as a “personal moving concierge” that can ease the pain of moving.
Inspired by Lived Experience
“The idea for Move AI really came from personal experience. Having moved many times myself, I was struck by how consistently painful and chaotic the process was,” Salesses, who has live in China and across the United States, told Citybiz.co. “Even with the best vendors, it still required a huge amount of coordination, time, and money. I wanted to solve that problem — to make moving seamless and stress-free for everyone, without requiring you to be a logistics expert.”
Salesses has an interesting background. He has served the US Army as a research scientist and founded multiple startups, including one in China. The Shanghai startup, Waylens, built innovative cameras that “make car ownership more secure and exciting,” according to Salesses’ description on LinkedIn.
Harnessing Tech
At its core, Salesses says, Move AI is “developing technology to automate the most time-consuming and repetitive tasks behind the scenes.” A key asset the company has developed is a mobile app that allows consumers to scan their homes and automatically identify all their belongings, eliminating a difficult inventory to list all household objects.
This allows Move AI to present “customers with tailored options and accurate cost estimates,” while its AI smarts helping “streamline workflows, ensuring that we identify key requirements early on to keep the process on track,” Salesses said.
Commercial Real Estate
MacKenzie Companies
Advertising / Media / Communications / Public Relations
Nevins & Associates
Financial Services / Investment Firms
Chesapeake Corporate Advisors
Commercial Real Estate
Monday Properties
Venture Capital
Blue Delta Capital Partners
Internet / Technology
Foxtrot Media
The startup’s “immediate goal” is to secure a few pilot programs with corporations, specifically targeting employees who receive a lump sum for relocation but then left to manage the process on their own, Salesses said.
“These are often employees who get some cash but no clear direction, leaving them to navigate the complexities of moving without much support,” said Salesses. “We aim to help them by providing a streamlined, self-serve solution that takes the guesswork out of the process.”
Move AI’s key investor Madan is the founder and CEO of RadiantGraph, which aims to personalize healthcare. He previously served as chief data scientist at Teladoc Health. Madan received a Ph. D. in machine learning from the MIT.
