New Delhi-based digital parking startup Park+ said Tuesday it has raised USD 11 million in equity financing led by Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners.
The funding round saw participation from entrepreneurs turned angel investors such as Snapdeal co-founders Rohit Bansal and Kunal Bahl, MakeMyTrip co-founders Deep Kalra and Rajesh Magow, BookMyShow founder Ashish Hemrajani, and Cred founder Kunal Shah.
The less than a-year-old company was founded by serial entrepreneur Amit Lokhatia who has spent his last 12 years working with leadership teams of three startups in India and Indonesia such as MakeMyTrip, Paytm, and Tokopedia. With Park+, he wants to digitize parking woes across India that include people parking their vehicles on the side of the road when they can’t find a nearby parking spot.
The company is yet to launch its mobile app.
“Parking is a massive problem faced across all major urban cities in India. The issue is worse in larger Indian cities, which are incredibly congested and difficult to navigate. With technology, we are looking to solve the problem faced by drivers and commuters on a daily basis.” said Amit Lakhotia, founder, Park+.
In a statement, the company said India has about 50 million registered cars of which 70% are concentrated in the top 15 cities causing a huge parking problem as parking infrastructure in these cities is not structured enough to deal with such a high density of cars. Citing global studies, Lokhatia said drivers spend anywhere between 10-15 minutes every trip to locate parking spots, which creates stress and wastes time as well as fuel.
The company’s app will allow daily commuters find out the nearest parking space in real-time, facilitate online payment for parking as well as track the position of their vehicle in the parking zone. In a nutshell, it will reduce the average time used to locate a parking slot available. Park+ will also work with commercial establishments that have a parking space to ensure real-time information relay to users.
“The best startup ideas solve real-world pain points, and Amit’s idea for Park+ is a perfect illustration of that. Having worked closely with Amit at Tokopedia, I am personally thrilled to get a chance to partner with him a second time,” said Shailendra Singh, managing director, Sequoia Capital (India) Singapore.
Solving mobility woes have become one of the areas which are attracting investors’ interest in India. Another New Delhi-based startup GetMyParking that started in 2015 has managed to raise money from investors such as Indian Angel Network, Chennai Angels, and Japanese VC firm Beenext. It expanded to Indonesia in March 2017 and raised USD 3 million in its Series A round in August 2017. Another digital parking startup Parking Rhino raised USD 540,000 in 2018 and claims to have a presence in 15 cities and expanded to the Philippines market as well in 2018.