Artificial intelligence-powered relocation firm PerchPeek Ltd. today said it has raised £2 million ($2.72 million) to further its international expansion as well as growing its U.S. sales team.

The round was led by Episode 1 and included Kevin Felix of ScotiaBank, Jahed Rahman of Aldar and Kris Rudeegraap of Sendoso.

Founded in 2018, PerchPeek initially started as a renting service in the U.K. but has since expanded into a global relocation service that, in its words, is “transforming the relocation industry.” A relocation service wouldn’t normally attract the interest of the tech media, but PerchPeek offers AI-powered recommendations, including relocation destinations and additional services that may be required once someone has moved.

With COVID-19 now into its second year, people trying to escape lockdowns and outbreaks is still a thing, so not surprisingly, PerchPeek is thriving in this market. Working remotely is in some countries, states and cities at times compulsory, and even with vaccination programs, the paradigm has arguably shifted permanently with remote working set to stay. The shift to working remotely has also resulted in many people being able to work wherever they want as well.

PerchPeek co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Paul Bennett, who was previously a business development manager at Amazon.com Inc., saw a gap in the market not only to provide a complete relocation service to a new generation of relocation candidates – those who can work from anywhere — but also to help some of the world’s top companies attract and retain top talent.

PerchPeek’s app is designed to offer a full range of services even from the point of someone thinking about moving. The app includes house-hunting, virtual tours of schools, organizing utilities setups and shipping quotes. The service includes 24/7 in-app customer support to help guide employees through every stage of their move to reduce the stress, anxiety, time and money it takes to organize their relocation.

The company also offers support for corporate clients, including a real-time dashboard for human resources teams that showcase where each employee is in the relocation and the cost of living in different areas. PerchPeek customers include Liberty Global B.V., Unilever plc and Red Hat Inc.

“The pandemic has shown that many employees can be successful working from anywhere and a litany of companies from Facebook to Reddit to Twitter have already committed to a remote-first future,” Bennett said in a statement. “This has accelerated the trend towards relocators being more digitally minded and interested in moving for lifestyle reasons rather than purely their career. Many of our larger corporate clients are investing in new roles to support this population, such as ‘head of remote’ and are actively seeking new benefits to retain talent in the new hybrid world of work.”

Including the new round, PerchPeek has raised $3.82 million to date.

Image: PerchPeek/Pinterest