Listen to this articleMovvo uses mobile phone radio signals to track the movement of people around shopping malls and analyze retail footfall without invading your privacy. This location-aware consumer behavior insight for the bricks and mortar retail environment is the equivalent of Google Analytics for the physical retail world. They also help these spaces monetize their shoppers with tools that enable their app’s to deliver personal experiences based on the shopper’s behavior and location. Below is our interview with Roberto Ugo, Co-founder and CTO at Movvo:
Q: What is Movvo? Could you tell us Movvo’s startup story?
A: Everything started when one of our professors told us he didn’t like to go shopping. So we developed an App that calculated the fastest route round the supermarket to buy all the items in his basket. Then we thought, if everybody was like him, it would be difficult for retailers to sell more items. We searched to see what state of the art costumer behavior technologies where available, and we found a huge lack in the market. Basically, everybody was using 90’s technology that didn’t answer the most relevant question retailers want: How does the customer interact with the store.
We did a small proof of concept at the university, using Bluetooth and then we pitched the idea to the MIT Portugal – Caixa Capital Entrepreneur Award. We won the competition and that was the start of Movvo. We were originally called Around Knowledge but re-branded in 2015. The Award allowed us to grow the company and develop the technology.
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Q: What were the main challenges you faced in developing the company?
A: The Portuguese startup scene was in its early stages, so it was hard to raise money but we managed to do it. Too much bureaucracy. Now things are easier. Managing people was also challenging, but hopefully we learned fast and managed to grow the team to more than 50 people. Tech talent is excellent in Portugal, but facing competition from other startup cities is hard, since we couldn’t afford to offer the same benefits that, for example, Berlin based startups offer. Luckily people love the project and stay for the long-term.
Q: What are main benefits of using Movvo’s B2B platform? How is it different than existing platforms?
A: We deliver Movvement IntelligenceTM to complex retail environments such as shopping centres. This location-aware consumer behavior insight for the bricks and mortar retail environment is the equivalent of Google Analytics for the physical retail world. We also help these spaces monetize their shoppers with tools that enable their app’s to deliver personal experiences based on the shopper’s behavior and location.
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It’s our actionable on-demand insight, that’s driving change in the way these teams view, analyze, engage and monetize their shoppers and assets.
Seeing shopper journeys around the centre, knowing how long they spend in the centre, what route they take, which stores they visit is incredibly valuable data for a shopping centre. Our engagement tools take this further enabling the data to trigger marketing activity via the visitors smartphone in real-time. It’s the combination of insight and actionable monetization tools that differentiates us from many shopper counting solutions. Whilst our beautifully effective analytics suite delivers real interactive business intelligence in to the hands of our clients.
Q: You’ve recently announced a $6 Million Series A funding round; what are your plans?
A: The investment is great news for Movvo. The Series A Funding has come from existing Movvo investors so it just shows the confidence we have from our existing investors in the progress we’ve made technically and the success we’ve had commercially. The funding will enable us to accelerate our next generation innovation in the platform and deliver new products. We will also be able to service the increased interest coming from the sector. We’re close to delivering some great announcements about some of our new customer wins soon. There will be a continued focus to excel in client experience to ensure where we invest, it adds value to clients quickly and effectively.
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Q: How does the future look like for Movvo in general?
A: If you just look at the Movvo story with regards where we started and where we’ve got to now, you can see that we never take our foot off the pedal. The shift in dynamics between online and offline retailing is creating a boom for our industry as shopping becomes an experience-orientated industry. How shopping centre environments continue to increase the monetization of their assets is a big question looking for answers. We predict that analytics and real-time data-driven marketing will be as prolific in bricks and mortar as it is in e-commerce soon, and Movvo’s leadership in this area, innovation and strong market experience will continue to drive our growth.
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