Tech startup ParkBee has raised a 5 million euro in a round led by German-based Statkraft Ventures and the regional development cooperation InnovationQuarter. In a previous funding round in 2016 Parkbee raised 1.8 million euro from the latter investor and a group of angels.
ParkBee lets owners of private car parks monetise underutilized parking spaces. It does so by making them bookable to the public. The company is going to use the capital raised to open up more vacant parking garages in the Netherlands and expand more agressively in the UK market where it already operates in 20 locations. The startup also aims to add complementary services to its platform, such as charging poles and bike-sharing facilities.
Parkbee seems to deliver significant value for all its different stakeholders. It claims to offer parking spots for the public for prices 30 to 50 % less than one would pay if she would park at streetside parking spots. For cities it makes it less urgent or even necessary to invest significant sums in building new parking spots to keep them accessible. And for the owners of the parking spots it can deliver significant upside. One of the most succesful ParkBee locations in The Hague has churned 500.000 euro for the owner in the two years that is it’s using ParkBee. Another location in Amsterdam churned 50.000 euro in the three months since opening the company claims.
“ParkBee helps us to optimise the use of our parking garage” says Pim Constandse van First Sponsor Group, owner of the Mondriaan Tower in Amsterdam, in an statement about the new funding round. Constandse: “In essence, completely hassle free. That’s real added value.”
“It’s hard to believe that there are so many unused parking spaces”, says commercial director of ParkBee, Wouter de Bruijne. “We have demonstrated in the last two years that we can open up underutilized locations to the public in a seamsless way with Parkmobile and Park-line. It’s now time to expand our services and make it accessible to the larger community.”