ParkTAG closes investment round with HTGF to solve parking problem for stressed drivers

The parking angels of ParkTAG receive seed funding from the German High-Tech Gründerfonds. The investment secures further development of the young Berlin startup – set to solve the parking issue in metropolitan areas.

German singer Herbert Grönemeyer landed a smash hit in `84 complaining about his private parking struggles. Since then, parking has become an even bigger problem in urban centers around the globe. The Berlin-based startup ParkTAG has now secured a seed investment from High-Tech Gründerfonds. The team of 10 technology lovers around founder Silvan C. Rath developed an app that can detect on-street parking occupancy. “ParkTAG is not just any parking app. We think of ourselves as technology specialists. Municipalities, mobility services and app publishers can use our technology to detect free parking spots,” says Rath.

Built-in smartphone sensors are capable of measuring soon-to-be-vacated parking spots even before the car departs. All of the data analysis takes place on the device itself. Exchanges between departing and arriving drivers result in a handover which is incentivized through a friendly reward system. Free parking spots are marked on the map and commercial parking options are equally displayed.

„Up to 4 times a day, urban drivers spend an average of 7 minutes in search of a parking space. A car spends 95% of its lifetime being parked. A staggering 30% of urban traffic are parking search related. These statistics illustrate the severity of the problem,” explains Rath.

While most other parking apps focus on subletting private parking spots, ParkTAG focuses on on-street parking. The app also helps drivers find their car again and reminds of expiring parking meters.

„With our investment we expedite the development of the complex Realtime Big Data System required to solve the street parking issue. There are many secondary applications of the technology in smart city environments. We are very much looking forward to working with the experienced team of international specialists,” remarks Marvin D. Andrä, investment manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds.

After 60 years of corporate work between them, the team is back in the startup world. Combining the chances of crowdsourcing, smart city technologies and connected car concepts intrigued the team most. And also internationally, there is a lively interest in the cost effective solution from Berlin.

About ParkTAG Social Parking
ParkTAG is a free smartphone app for iOS and Android. Within the community users can report and find vacating parking spots. The crowdsourcing concept is coined “social parking” as users help each other to save time and money. Community activity is rewarded with points that can be redeemed for parking information in turn. After models like ride sharing and couch surfing, the shareconomy now helps urban drivers to solve parking problems for themselves.

Contact:
Silvan C. Rath
Founder & CEO
Bergstrasse 22
10115 Berlin-Mitte
Germany
+49 (0)151-52661624
silvan@parktag.mobi
www.parktag.mobi

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds invests in young, high potential high-tech start-ups. The seed financing provided is designed to enable start-ups to take an idea through prototyping and to market launch. Typically, High-Tech Gründerfonds invests EUR 500,000 in the seed stage, with the potential for up to a total of EUR 2 million per portfolio company in follow-on financing. Investors in this public/private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, Bayer, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, Lanxess, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, METRO, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, SAP, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gründerfonds has about EUR 576 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 304 million HTGF II).

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Marvin D. Andrä
Investment Manager
Schlegelstraße 2
53113 Bonn
Germany
Tel: +49 228 823001-00
Fax: +49 228 823000-50
m.andrae@htgf.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de