Wednesday, January 23, 2013
ParkMe Gets New Funding Round
ParkMe, the startup provider of parking information and data founded by Sam Friedman and Alex Israel, announced this morning that it has raised a new round of funding, from Angeleno Group, Fontinalis Partners and IDG Ventures. As part of the funding, Daniel Weiss of Angelo Group has joined the company's board of directors. ParkMe said the new funds will go towards expanding its international footprint and grow its U.S. presence, including building out its technology team, business development, and marketing. Los Angeles-based ParkMe offers up a service which provides dynamic and real-time parking information, including availability of parking, pricing, and more.
The new round comes as a large amount of investment interest has come to the industry, with a number of competitors and partners finding their own funding rounds. In an interview, Sam Friedman, ParkeMe's CEO, explained that the sudden interest in the mobile parking space comes because the parking industry is "ripe for disruption". Friedman said that parking is a $30 billion industry, and that the sudden proliferation of mobile devices has suddenly made services like ParkMe the next thing. Friedman said that while users wouldn't have used the Internet to find parking--except perhaps something like airport parking--now, with a mobile device, people expect to be able to find real time parking information at their fingertips via their mobile phone--which is what investors are realizing now.
Friedman says the firm is now targeting marketing hires, product hires, and expanding its service to as many cities as possible with real time coverage with the new funds; he believes the company's focus on the user, national coverage base, connections into services such as INRIX, and how it provides data to other applications, will help the firm gain a much better position than its competitors in this market.
More information »