Smart parking startup Park+ raises $11 mn from Sequoia, Matrix

Delhi-based smart parking app Park+ has raised $11 million in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners.

Park+, which is looking to digitise parking across India, has raised $11 million in a financing round co-led by venture capital funds Sequoia India and Matrix Partners India.

Prominent angel investors, including Deep Kalra, Rajesh Magow, Ashish Hemrajani, Kunal Shah, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal also participated in the round.

Park+ is a mobile app-based platform that offers an automated parking system as well as a cloud-based security solution for daily commuters, corporates, and commercial establishments. It provides real-time parking discovery, booking, payment and tracking.

The company is founded by Amit Lakhotia, an early Paytm employee.

“Parking is a massive problem faced across all major urban cities in India. People today don’t have any visibility of real-time availability of parking spaces in the areas they are venturing out,” Lakhotia, who was VP at Paytm and who also had a stint at Indonesian e-commerce firm Tokopedia, told ET. “With technology, we are looking to solve the problem faced by drivers and commuters on a daily basis.”

According to data shared by Park+, drivers spend 10-15 minutes each trip trying to locate parking spots. India has close to 50 million cars, with 70% concentrated in the top 15 cities.

The parking infrastructure in these cities is not structured enough to deal with such a high density of cars.

“The best startup ideas solve real-world pain points… Parking is a very tough problem to solve, and we felt it would take a founder like Amit to build a parking platform company for India,” said Shailendra Singh, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital (India) Singapore.

“Amit’s depth and breadth of experience in working with leading internet companies is a big asset for building Park+ into a large and successful company,” said Avnish Bajaj, Founder and Managing Director, Matrix India.