Baloise Switzerland has taken a further step in implementing its Simply Safe strategy with the acquisition of digital home-moving services platform MOVU. The move into this market means that Baloise can now expand its offering with new services that will enhance and complement its traditional insurance business.
“I am delighted that we are able to announce a further milestone in Baloise’s new strategy in the current year with the takeover of MOVU,” says Michael Müller, CEO of Basler Versicherungen Switzerland. At the Investor Day at the end of 2016, Baloise had announced that it would add new initiatives to its traditional insurance business and make a concerted effort to gear its service offering towards customers. “By making this purchase we are not only investing in Switzerland’s biggest home-moving services platform, we are also acquiring invaluable expertise for the platform business that MOVU has built up. Together with the MOVU team we are looking to grow the core business in this segment and add new services,” says Müller.
MOVU AG is a Swiss start-up founded in Zurich in 2014 by Laurent Decrue, Nenad Nikolic and Nicolas Bürer. Within a very short space of time, it rose to become the biggest home-moving services platform in Switzerland. Its business model is centred around the arrangement of convenient and reliable home moves for the consumer market. This philosophy fits in perfectly with Baloise’s aspiration to add value for its customers by offering services that make their life easier and by being more than a traditional insurance company. MOVU sources transparent quotes from certified moving and cleaning companies. The quotes that best suit the customer can then be booked directly on the site and the customer can even get free advice from MOVU’s independent removal experts.
As part of the acquisition, MOVU is being provided with funding to drive its growth and in the coming months will expand its portfolio of services in the home and living segment. “We are very proud to have secured a strong and customer-focused partner in Baloise that supports our vision and will help us to bring the digital revolution to further lines of business,” says Laurent Decrue, CEO and co-founder of MOVU.
MOVU will continue to operate independently in order to retain its agility and innovative capabilities. However, Basler will be investing in the collaboration with the aim of developing common solutions and accelerating the growth of both companies.
Gert De Winter believes that Baloise is on the right track: “At the beginning of the year, Baloise underlined its pioneering role in offering insurance for a digital society by introducing cyber-insurance and photo-based watch insurance. Our acquisition of MOVU represents a major step towards achieving the objectives of Simply Safe by 2021, particularly in relation to winning new customers.”
The transaction is subject to the approval of the regulator and will be completed in the next weeks. The MOVU brand will continue to exist in the market. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.
