PerchPeek

High-Level Overview

PerchPeek is a London-based technology company founded in 2018 that provides an AI-powered platform for employee relocations and global mobility services.[1][2][3] It offers an all-in-one solution including home search assistance, expense management, relocation tracking, policy consulting, visa support, and coaching via a mobile app, serving multinational corporations and global enterprises to streamline moves across over 150 countries at up to 70% lower costs than traditional services.[1][2][5] The company targets the challenges of employee mobility in a remote and hybrid work era, with total funding of around $15M across Series A rounds, the latest in 2023, though it faced layoffs and project cuts amid economic pressures.[1][2]

Origin Story

PerchPeek was founded in 2018 (with some sources noting 2017) by Paul Bennett (CEO and cofounder) and others, initially as a UK property marketplace dubbed "Tinder for renting" to simplify flat-hunting.[1][2] The idea stemmed from the founders' personal experiences with the difficulties of moving, evolving into a full AI-driven relocation agent amid the COVID-19 shift to remote work, which boosted demand for flexible global mobility.[2][3] Early traction included a €2.2M raise led by Episode 1 in 2020 for international expansion, including a U.S. sales team, followed by an £8M Series A in 2022 and a $1.5M extension, though 2023 brought layoffs of 30 employees, hiring freezes, and scrapped consumer app plans due to cost-cutting.[1][2]

Core Differentiators

• AI-Powered End-to-End Guidance: Uses AI as a "home search assistant" to handle every relocation stage—from property search and settling in to visas, expenses, and coaching—making moves simpler, faster, and more personalized via an award-winning app.[2][4][5]
• Cost Efficiency and Scalability: Delivers lump-sum relocations 70% cheaper than legacy providers, with industry-leading data visibility for program control, supporting 150+ countries without high-cost intermediaries.[1][5]
• Customer-Centric Global Team: Operates as "true global citizens" from Moscow to Miami, guided by eight core values like customer focus, empathy, and bold innovation, fostering a high-performance culture that overachieves on relocations.[3]
• Enterprise Focus with Flexibility: Combines policy consulting, tracking, and low-friction tools for businesses, differentiating from traditional relocators by emphasizing technology over manual processes.[1][5]

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

PerchPeek rides the remote and hybrid work trend accelerated by COVID-19, enabling companies to support "work anywhere" policies amid talent wars for global hires.[2] Its timing aligns with rising employee mobility demands—millions move yearly—fueled by market forces like labor shortages, digital nomadism, and cost pressures on HR budgets, where AI reduces relocation friction and expenses.[1][3][5] By influencing the ecosystem, it pushes the global mobility industry toward tech-native models, challenging incumbents with data-driven insights and scalability, while enhancing corporate agility in a borderless talent market.[1][2]

Quick Take & Future Outlook

PerchPeek is poised to capitalize on sustained remote work and AI advancements in HR tech, potentially expanding its app's AI capabilities for predictive relocation analytics and deeper integrations with enterprise tools. Economic recovery could reverse 2023 setbacks, driving growth in high-mobility sectors like tech and finance, with trends like AI personalization and sustainability in travel shaping its path.[1][2][5] Its influence may grow by redefining relocations as seamless, empowering more firms to build distributed teams—turning the once-daunting move into a competitive edge, much like its origins transformed renting chaos into guided simplicity.