With the power of IoT, Get My Parking wants to disrupt the parking industry, make driving easier
With end-to-end parking digitisation, cloud-based Get My Parking provides advanced analytics solutions for smart cities to reinvent parking infrastructure.
At a glance
Startup: Get My Parking
Founder: Chirag Jain and Rasik Pansare
Year it was founded: 2015
Where is it based: Delhi
The problem it solves: Offering advanced parking analytics solutions, The Get My Parking app allows users to search, book, and navigate to the nearest parking lot
Sector: IoT
Funding raised: Raised angel funding of Rs 2.5 crore (January 2016), pre-Series A funding of Rs 7.35 crore (January 2017) and Series A Funding of Rs 19.2 crore (October 2017)
Parking is an issue for everyone, be it drivers, merchants, government officials or women on the go. At a time when you can search and book-on-demand cabs, movies, dinner dates or even laundry services on your phone, why are you forced to waste your time, fuel, and energy on parking problems?
As per the IBM Global Parking Index 2011, an average urban motorist spends 20 minutes more on the road due to parking problems. This is not only a waste of time, but also loss of productivity.
Aiming to transform the parking industry, IoT venture Get My Parking was launched in July 2015. The startup provides advanced parking analytics solutions to reinvent parking infrastructure. The platform intends to organise the industry by serving parking contractors (enterprise solutions), governments (smart city), infrastructure partners (platform Integration), and consumers (mobile apps).
Smart parking solutions
The Get My Parking app allows users to search, book, and navigate to the nearest parking lot, eliminating the hassles of looking out for parking space. The cloud-based technology gives a bird's eye view of all essential parking information, including map of locations, availability, pricing, and other details, along with cashless payment and navigation.
Rasik Pansare, Co-founder and CMO of Get My Parking, says, “Smart parking solutions can make cities economically productive, less polluting, and less wasteful of resources. It is not just about managing parking spaces; it is about simplifying transportation.”
So far, the platform claims to have mapped over 320 locations and has processed over 22 million parkings in Delhi-NCR using its solutions. Available on both Google App and Play store, the app has been downloaded over 1,200 times so far.
What does the app offer?
The app offers solutions to all stakeholders of the parking industry, be it the citizen, enforcement agency, or urban planner.
For Parking Contractors: Digitisation of parking ticketing and management, which reduces revenue leakage and enables real-time business control. The platform integrates with any access control hardware for end-to-end mobile-based parking management system at very low capital cost.
For Citizens: Offers real-time availability, search, reserve, and navigate to parking space in advance. Also allows to pay cashless and get relevant deals where users park.
For Urban Planners: Provides citywide macro-level data about where, when, and how many vehicles are getting parked. Also offers real analytics for policymaking.
For Enforcement Agencies: Digital tools to enforce parking policies and violations.
For Smart City or System Integrator: End-to-end parking technology integrated with the city dashboard. Integrated with sensors, smart cards, and m-wallets.
The back story
The Founders of Get My Parking, Chirag and Rasik, met in December 2012 during Jagriti Yatra, a 15-day train adventure where they traveled across India for 8,000 km, meeting entrepreneurs and change-makers. They remained in touch and started working on Get My Parking part-time from 2015.
“Initially, we faced hurdles in terms of gaining trust of parking operators and then proving the value of digitisation. The clients we worked with had never interfaced with modern technology applied for their use cases, which created a bias in their perception. But through persistence and ingenuity, our team made them ardent advocates of the impact of our technology,” Rasik recalls.
Chirag, the CEO and Founder of Getmyparking.com, graduated from IIT Madras in 2013 and worked in the automotive industry for 2 years before starting his entrepreneurial journey. Chirag has keen interest in urban planning and was also awarded the best delegate award at New York Global Young Leaders Summit under United Nations Development Programme.
Rasik is the Co-founder and CMO of Get My Parking. He graduated from FMS Delhi and was the president of the entrepreneurship cell there. An engineer and MBA by education, Rasik is also an engaging storyteller and has been a TEDx speaker, guest lecturer, and speaker at several Smart City and IoT summits in the past. While pursuing his MBA, Rasik got a pre-placement offer from Pepsico, which he declined to pursue his entrepreneurial adventure with Chirag.
Creating a niche
The market opportunity for parking is estimated to be over $100 billion globally and $5 billion in India. Most of the existing solutions are not flexible enough to succeed in emerging markets and several players have forayed into the space to address these problems.
Get My Parking is competing with Indian players like Pparke, Parking4Sure and Parkwheels, among others. Globally, the brand is locking horns with brands like Parkopedia, SpotHero, Appyparking, Parker, JustPark, Easypark, and others.
However, Get My Parking, which seemed to have created quite a buzz in the parking industry, is cashing on its frugal technology that digitises any type of parking at an affordable price. Its suite of solutions claims to integrate a complete smart parking ecosystem and organise the fragmented chaotic industry with data and execution.
Plans for the future
Currently, the startup is backed by a team of 65-plus members and has received funding from various investors, including Indian Angel Network (IAN), BEENEXT and IAN Fund.
So far, the platform has raised angel funding of Rs 2.5 crore (January 2016), pre-Series A funding of Rs 7.35 crore (January 2017) and Series A Funding of Rs 19.2 crore (October 2017).
The brand is monetising by operating as a SaaS platform for global projects. In the domestic market, Rasik highlights that they have additional revenue models and verticals, including government business.
“We process an average 65,000 parking transactions on-ground everyday (2 million per month). Our revenues have grown 10x annually and we will break even operationally in the upcoming fiscal year,” Rasik adds.
Going ahead, the brand is focusing on developing the next version of the product platform. It also has plans to expand to 15 countries next year, and to 25 countries by 2020.