Launched in 2000 and now in 400 cities across 9 markets, EasyPark helps drivers find and pay for parking. In a move to complement current capabilities within parking availability, EasyPark Group announced its acquisition of parktech start-up PARKO, which specializes in advanced algorithms for determining on-street block-by-block parking availability helping drivers discover the most efficient route for finding parking.
“EasyPark has been investing heavily in parking availability prediction. The acquisition of PARKO is another important step in enhancing our current solution and strengthening the team further with people passionate about making parking easy for drivers,” noted EasyPark Group CEO Johan Birgersson. “This puts us in a unique position to deliver what we call Parking Excellence, meaning fully digitized parking solutions to cities and drive revenues for commercial operators.”
Transparent information about parking space availability throughout the city allows motorists to make better decisions regarding destination routes, thereby decreasing the dreaded parking spot search time and ultimately helping cities improve traffic flow. With up to 30% of congestion in a city attributed to motorists looking for a parking space, the ability to quickly and efficiently guide them to an available parking space will reduce emissions and contribute to greener cities averred the company. At the same time the platform allows commercial parking operators, who are transparent about the parking availability of their garages and surface lots, to drive a substantial part of this parking search traffic into their properties, through this partnership with EasyPark.
“We built our company on our passion for making parking easy just as EasyPark has done. They have a very competent team and we are excited to join forces with them to create the world’s best parking guidance service,” added PARKO CEO Tomer NeuNer.
EasyPark was an early phone parking player, launching in 2000. Since then, the company has aimed to bring innovative services to market, fast tracking the evolution of parking. In April 2016, EasyPark was selected to the Red Herring Top 100 Europe list, one of the most exciting European companies to watch. In July 2015, the Israeli startup raised $1.1 million in a seed round which included investors SparkLabs Global Ventures, OurCrowd and a syndicate of European angels.
“EasyPark is the ideal home for PARKO with their phenomenal momentum, unique market position, and bold vision,” concluded Elan Zivotofsky, General Partner at OurCrowd, the largest investor of PARKO. “Having been part of the journey since PARKO’s inception, we look forward to the continued growth of EasyPark with the new addition of the PARKO team.”