AppyParking, the award-winning parking and connected car start-up which hopes to significantly reduce the average time it takes to park, has raised additional funding to continue rolling out its technology across the UK.
The London-based firm, which was founded in 2013 by chief executive Dan Hubert, has secured £2.25 million from existing backer Aviva Ventures and new investor Breed Reply, which specialises in backing early stage Internet of Things (IoT) businesses.
AppyParking started life as a London-focused app that gave drivers peace of mind about the nearest and cheapest on and off-street parking, and displayed what restrictions and tariffs apply.
It can now be used in 20 of the UK’s biggest cities including Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester.
“To receive this funding from Aviva, the UK’s largest car insurer and Breed Reply is a great endorsement of all the work my team have done so far,” Dan Hubert said.
AppyParking is now taking the lead to address the “fundamental gap” between the public and private sector which it says is hindering Britain’s ambitions to be an autonomous vehicle-ready nation.
The firm claims that its Smart City dashboard has already begun to empower cities and drivers across the UK, resulting in the ease of congestion and a reduction in pollution.
“AppyParking has quickly established itself as a must have app for drivers but also has exciting applications in terms of fleet management and helping the creation of smart cities,” Breed Reply CEO Emanuele Angelidis said.
Ben Luckett, managing director of Aviva Investors, added: “People are already using a variety of technologies in their car to make driving simpler and safer and AppyParking has a great solution that uses data in an innovative way to take away the pain of parking in cities around the world. We see data-driven solutions like theirs will play an increasingly important role as we move to a world of autonomous and connected vehicles.”
The news of the £2.25m funding follows AppyParking’s launch of its new ‘One Click Parking’ feature last month, which was initially launched in Westminster and will roll out nationwide in 2018.
It is described as the world’s first pay-as-you-park connected car solution that will reduce the average time to park from 20 minutes to 30 seconds.