Meet David Greenberg, Founder and CEO of Updater
David Greenberg is the Founder and CEO of Updater, a pioneer in moving technology. He built a tech company that simplifies moving and the extensive checklist of tasks it requires for the 45M+ Americans that move each year.
During David’s own move many years ago, he was frustrated like everyone else. He searched for a moving app to help, and found nothing. Not one to pass up a challenge, he realized there was a huge opportunity to reinvent how Americans move and turn a painful process into an enjoyable experience. David built and launched Updater in 2011, determined to create a tool that could ease the burden of moving.
“I found the moving process to be incredibly inefficient,” says Greenberg. “I was reaching out to dozens of different businesses to try to organize and schedule my move. I went online to try and find a technology platform that would actually help me through the move, and when there was nothing, I realized there was a huge opportunity to build something that everyone would love.”
In 2013, Updater participated in the first annual REach technology accelerator program conducted by the National Association of REALTORS®. Through the REach program, Updater refined its initial B2B2C product offerings, which aimed to help real estate agents deliver superior client service via a streamlined moving experience. A strategy within the real estate industry was quickly proven to be successful and led to later expansions into multifamily, student housing, mortgage, title insurance, and more.
In 2014, Updater conducted a Series A round of financing led by SoftBank Capital and Second Century Ventures (the strategic investment arm of the National Association of REALTORS®), with participation from IA Ventures and Commerce Ventures.
As a fundraising strategy, David led Updater through an IPO on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on December 7, 2015. As an ASX-listed company (ticker: UPD), Updater conducted three equity fundraises, a first-of-its-kind strategy for an American company of Updater’s size. Over the years, many entrepreneurs have asked David about his unique fundraising style and if Updater’s approach would work for their business. You can read more about Updater’s decision to IPO at only 25 people in Entrepreneur.
In 2017, Updater acquired leading moving software companies IGC Software and Asset Controls Inc., merging the companies to form MoveHQ—the industry’s first end-to-end solution to run an entire moving and storage business from the cloud.
With plans to raise further capital in the US private markets, Updater voluntarily delisted from the ASX on October 10, 2018.
In 2019, Updater acquired Bridgevine, Inc., a company that built and maintained a series of technology integrations and relationships with home subscription service providers, including many of the largest providers of internet and TV services, home security, and home warranty products. Prior to the acquisition, Updater leveraged a partnership with Bridgevine to enable movers to place the majority of their home subscription orders, and Bridgevine leveraged Updater as one of its top partnerships. After the acquisition, David led the integration of Bridgevine’s technology and personnel into the core Updater business to form a single operating structure.
In 2020, David led an investment into the Series A round of Wattbuy, a technology company that builds and maintains digital integrations with regulated and deregulated energy providers, enabling an online electricity marketplace for consumers to browse and select plans. Updater also became one of the leading resources that consumers and businesses alike could turn to for new migration trends and safe moving tips during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In July of 2021, Updater acquired Dolly, a leading provider of on-demand local moving and delivery services. Acquiring Dolly allowed Updater to further bolster its product offering by giving users the ability to book highly-rated, affordable Dolly ‘helpers’ for smaller-scale local moves or per-item moves (think couches from Facebook Marketplace), particularly when a full-service moving company is not a practical solution.
November 2021 saw a partnership between Updater and technology company GetCovered, who signed a commercial agreement to help our users nationwide shop for and sign up for the right renter’s insurance policies at minimum requirements. Updater’s role in a Series A fundraise toward these efforts yielded $7 million.
In May 2022, Updater secured a $215 million investment from Vista Credit Partners, a subsidiary of Vista Equity Partners — a strategic credit and financing partner focused on the enterprise software, data, and technology markets. The investment funded resources needed for Updater’s ambitious initiatives, allowing for expansion into new moving segments, broadening our suite of marketplace and SaaS products, and investing substantially in talent to support our continued growth.
In July of 2022, Updater successfully led the investment round of Series A funding for homeownership portal milestones.ai, yielding $10.3 million — helping to simplify the complex homeownership process and streamline real estate industry support.
April 2024 yielded one of Updater’s most important partnerships yet—Greenberg officially launched HomeSafe Connect, a technology platform that powers the Global Household Goods Contract. The partnership marks Updater’s first with the U.S. government. The HomeSafe Connect software platform streamlines moves and will efficiently relocate over 300,000 American military service members and Department of Defense civilians each year.
With David’s deep understanding of the moving and relocation industry and his dedication to reinventing and improving the industry, he has become a leading innovator in today’s real estate tech market. Under David’s leadership, Updater has emerged as a dominant influencer in the relocation and real estate industries, winning the National Multifamily Housing Council’s highly-coveted Technology Innovator Award, the American Moving and Storage Association’s Summit Award (the most prestigious award in the industry), and many others.
David has been a featured speaker for the National Association of REALTORS®, Inman Connect, and other major industry conferences. He is a leading advocate for the connectivity of technology systems to enable a more seamless home purchasing and relocation experience. David was named to the Swanepoel list of Emerging Leaders in 2017, as a Swanepoel Tech Trendsetter in 2018, and as a RISMedia 2019 Real Estate Newsmaker. He has been featured on Fox Business, in The New York Times, TechCrunch, Mashable, Cheddar TV, and is an active contributor to Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Inc.
Over the years, David has nurtured a deep pride for Updater’s growing reputation as one of the most rewarding places to work in New York City. Updater has been honored as one of the Best Places to Work by Crain’s New York Business multiple times, ranking as the #1 tech company and #3 overall in NYC. Other awards include Built In NYC’s Best Places to Work, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Top Workplace in Atlanta, and The Timmy Awards’ Best Tech Workplace Culture. Since reaching a record-high Glassdoor rating of 4.8/5.0 for Updater, David himself achieved a 100% CEO Approval Rating on the platform.
And, according to David, Updater isn’t going to budge from its top position.
“We’re mover-first,” he said of Updater’s core philosophy, stating that Updater is always on the side of the mover. “We’re always building technology to simplify the process for the person moving. We’re in a position to completely reinvent the consumer relocation experience.”
David began his career as a corporate lawyer, working at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. He’s a graduate of Cornell Law School and served as Editor of the Cornell Law Review. David is also an alum of the University of Pennsylvania.
More Updater Life
Bob Cahill joins Updater as President and CFO
10 April 2024
Changes to Updater’s team
16 August 2022
