Muvn turns your car into a transport vehicle
What is the cheapest way to get televisions, chairs and other items that are too large for conventional parcel delivery from A to B? The answer is provided by Muvn, which arranges carpooling opportunities for items. Behind the startup is a founding team with plenty of experience, which has brought it a lot of support right from the start. The driving force behind the company is CEO Katharina Kreutzer.
A founder from an entrepreneurial family
Is there such a thing as entrepreneurial genes, through which a special talent for entrepreneurship is inherited? Researchers put forward this hypothesis a few years ago. It is controversial, but it could actually apply to Katharina Kreutzer, who was born in Regensburg. Both of her parents independently ran several businesses in the hotel, restaurant and meat trade. As a result, she learned what a GmbH is and how companies are structured at an early age, incidentally, while sitting at the kitchen table. This helped her when she attended business school, where she received excellent grades, although she doesn't describe herself as a model student.
She also got to know working life early. At the age of eight, she was already taking on small tasks in the family business. Over the years, her responsibility grew and she gained experience that still benefits her today. After leaving school, Katharina trained as a retail saleswoman, then worked for a large retail group in purchasing and completed her Bachelor of Science in Business and Retail Management at the same time. She was about to be promoted at her employer when she came across founderio's website while researching e-commerce and packaging solutions online.
Because of Boomerang to Hamburg and not back
founderio is a platform that aspiring startup entrepreneurs use to find co-founders. In 2021, Marc Engelmann presented his project there, a reusable system for shipping bags. Katharina was immediately impressed and made her way to Hamburg for an introductory meeting, as did Christian Putz, who also has his roots in Bavaria. After the three met, it was clear that the trio had come together to officially found the startup Boomerang. Katharina Kreuzer quit her job, made the leap from south to north and became part of a success story that began in 2022. Boomerang won several awards, entered into collaborations with renowned partners and raised millions in financing rounds.
At the beginning of 2024, Katharina nevertheless withdrew from the operational business at Boomerang. As CPO, she had been responsible for product development, which is not really her domain. By hiring a packaging expert, she effectively rationalised herself out of the company. After the partial exit - she is still involved with the startup on the Advisory Board - she wanted to take some time out and enjoy an extensive trip to Asia. However, this didn’t happen, as an experience from when she moved from Regensburg to Hamburg became the basis for a new business idea.
Muvn has an experienced founding team with clear expertise
Back then, she had realised how cumbersome and expensive transporting smaller items in particular can be. There should be something like ride-sharing services for things, was an idea she did not pursue at first. In 2024, Massimo Sabatino, an acquaintance from her startup community, approached her and within minutes they realised that this could lead to a promising startup. They brought two other co-founders from their circle of acquaintances on board for the foundation: Emre Aydin and Rene Schröder.
Muvn was born and had a quartet with great experience and expertise right from the start. Massimo had founded several companies and is the financial expert in the team. Emre and Rene had been successful as well with their startup Orderfy, which developed an ordering and payment solution for the food service industry. This meant that they already had plenty of basic startup knowledge, which allowed them to speed up processes and avoid mistakes. There was also a clear division of tasks right from the start. Emre takes care of product development, Rene is responsible for marketing and Katharina sets the strategy as CEO.
She is also the face of Muvn, appears at pitches and trade fairs and regularly shares her knowledge on LinkedIn. As a result, she has become something of a personal brand, although self-promotion is not her goal. Rather, she is interested in describing the many sides of entrepreneurship and showing that a woman can succeed in a male-dominated industry such as logistics.
Successful even before the actual launch
In any case, Muvn cannot complain about a lack of attention. Several business angels, including Daniel Beutler, former CEO of the travel platform Trainline, had already invested a six-figure sum at the start in summer 2024 and long before the actual market launch. Muvn also got one of the six final places in the Digital Logistics Award 2024 and won the 7th MarkenSlam in Hamburg last November. Finally, at the end of 2024, the company received funding from the InnoFintech programme of IFB Innovationsstarter GmbH. The run of success continued in 2025: In March, the startup secured 50,000 euros from EcoVerse Ventures at the Zebra Investment Night. Entrepreneur Benjamin Otto then joined as an investor. And in April, the victory at the Technology for Future Award 2025 was added.
That’s when the Muvn app had just been launched. In the meantime, it has been downloaded over 7,000 times and has already fulfilled its purpose many times over: arranging ridesharing for objects. The principle is very simple and is based on the business model of the successful French company BlaBaCar. That was founded in 2006 with the aim of establishing a Europe-wide network of car-sharing agencies. The background to this is the fact that on many car journeys, the seats are only sparsely occupied. The German Federal Ministry of Transport once calculated that on average there are only 1.4 people per car on the road; in rush-hour traffic the figure is as low as 1.1.
Muvn closes a gap in the logistics industry
So there would be enough space for passengers, but many drivers don't want to be accompanied by strangers who talk too much or display other unpleasant behavior. Objects, on the other hand, are guaranteed not to cause any trouble and not only have space on the seats, but also in the trunk. In this way, normal drivers quickly become transportation operators for the day. The app users enter their route on one side and the item and from where to where it should be transported on the other. The drivers specify the desired price, and Muvn charges an additional fee. A matchmaking algorithm then finds the right combination and, ideally, enables savings of 80% compared to conventional logistics companies. However, they do not see the startup as annoying competition, but as a welcome addition to their range of services. Within the industry, the term “weed” is occasionally used in connection with general cargo, where the cost/benefit ratio is poor.
Muvn's offer is not limited to pure transportation brokerage. Customers can also have their items insured on request. The startup then acts as a product-accessory insurance broker, as it is called in the nicest bureaucratic German. The service also includes a chat function that allows both parties to exchange information in advance. This is explicitly requested by potential users, while GPS tracking of the freight is seen as less important. Both are the results of customer surveys, which played a key role in the development of the app from the outset. Muvn's target group is primarily younger, tech-savvy people, but in principle anyone who wants to transport something from A to B should feel addressed.
Muvn is a Hamburg-based startup, even though it temporarily relocated its headquarters to Hesse last year due to funding from the House of Logistics and Mobility (HOLM) GmbH in Frankfurt. The core team currently consists of eight people, with additional support from the network. The three co-founders Massimo, Emre and Rene are still based in North Rhine-Westphalia, but this could well change if Muvn's success story continues as before. They were certainly welcome in the Hamburg startup community. It is also the one who particularly highlights Katharina from Regensburg:
