ParkWhiz Acquires BestParking, Announces $24M Raise
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On-demand parking apps may not be the most glamorous of startups; they’re mainly all about access. In addition to announcing its largest raise to date, ParkWhiz announced an acquisition today that will bring its customers, particularly those in the New York market, even greater access.
The Chicago-based parking startup announced Tuesday that it had raised $24 million in Series C funding. The announcement of the round, which was led by Baird Capital, accompanied news that the startup had also acquired New York-based competitor BestParking. Beringea and Jump Capital also participated in the Series C, which brought ParkWhiz’s total funding to date to $36 million.
With the new acquisition, ParkWhiz says its platform has over 800,000 spaces in 4,000 parking locations across 50 major U.S. cities. The company said that the combined reach of both BestParking and ParkWhiz drove over $50 million in revenue to parking operators in 2015, and that there were over 1 million bookings in New York City alone this past year.
ParkWhiz operates much like other startups in this space do, by attempting to connect users with available parking locations in their city as effortlessly as possible through their mobile app.
“With our focus on providing drivers a frictionless parking experience and parking operators with efficient technology, we have grown to be the leader in the on-demand parking space,” said Aashish Dalal, ParkWhiz co-founder and CEO, in a statement. “Complementing ParkWhiz with BestParking’s leadership position in New York City and expertise in sourcing nationwide parking data, combined we become the foremost resource for drivers and parking providers.”