Moov, a data-fueled marketplace for used manufacturing equipment, has closed a $41 million Series A funding round led by Tiger Global. Investors joining the round include public semiconductor investor Gavin Baker of Atreides Management, Valor Equity Partners, Avenir Growth Fund, and existing investors.
The San Francisco-based company’s co-founders, Steven Zhou and Maxam Yeung, came up with the idea for Moov around a decade ago. The two say that they recognized that companies in the industry, such as Qualcomm and Samsung, spend billions of dollars a year purchasing manufacturing equipment only for it to get scrapped or forgotten in an offsite warehouse in a few years despite being usable for decades.
“We identified an opportunity that existed based on how long the equipment is being used versus how long it’s usable for,” Moov CEO Steven Zhou told TechCrunch in an interview. “There was a billion-dollar opportunity to repurpose this equipment. That’s where the idea of Moov came about. It’s essentially leveraging data and technology automation algorithms to more effectively match unused equipment and find new homes for it all over the world.”
One of Moov’s use cases is to help manufacturing companies recoup capital that would have otherwise been lost. On the buyer side, Moov aims to help small businesses and universities around the world that don’t have the budget or network to acquire equipment to further their innovation.
The platform’s software matches equipment listed by sellers to companies that can use it by automatically serving them those listings. Buyers can also manually search through a mass list of equipment. Along with a real-time marketplace, Moov also features additional services such as logistics, refurbishment, insurance, and asset management software.
As for the new funding, Moov plans to use it to expand its domestic presence into other semiconductor hubs such as Austin and New York. It also plans to expand its global presence in China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and Europe. The company will also hire executives, invest in research and development, and also continue to strategically purchase more inventory. Moov also plans to examine acquisition strategies with other industry players that could be plugged into its ecosystem.
Moov’s Series A funding round comes in the midst of the ongoing global chip shortage, as many industries have slowed production because manufacturers are unable to obtain the required equipment. Zhou says that Moov is working to help alleviate local shortages and that the company is able to reduce the lead time for companies to purchase equipment from months, down to days or hours.
The company’s data suggests that the value of used equipment has more than doubled over the past year, and these numbers are expected to continue to grow, doubling to around $200 billion per year within the next six to eight years. With close to $1.5 billion in active and available listings on its platform, Moov plans to play a role in shifting the global equipment purchasing mindset.
Zhou says the company is also proud to have built a marketplace that helps to reduce electronic waste globally. “As we grow, we’re really excited to play an increasing role in helping the reduction of the carbon footprint of global manufacturing and also to help alleviate the global chip shortage,” he said.
