 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Parking |
| Founded | 2011 |
| Founder |
|
| Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
Area served | North America |
Key people |
|
| Services | Parking reservations |
Number of employees | 219 (July 2018)[1] |
| Subsidiaries | Parking Panda |
| Website | spothero |
SpotHero is a digital parking marketplace that connects drivers looking to reserve and pay for parking spaces with parking lots, parking garages and valet services. The company, which operates a mobile app and website as well as a parking developer platform,[2] is available in over 300 cities in the United States and Canada. The company is based in Chicago, Illinois.
History
[edit]Early beginnings
[edit]SpotHero was founded by Mark Lawrence and Jeremy Smith in Chicago in 2011, with co-founder Larry Kiss joining the company soon after.[3][4] The company started out as a peer-to-peer parking marketplace, where people could rent out their own private parking spots, before expanding the platform to partner with parking companies and garages.[5][6]
In December 2012, SpotHero raised $2.5 million in venture capital funds from Battery Ventures (lead), 500 Startups, Bullet Time, e.Ventures, OCA Ventures, New World Ventures, Lightbank, and Draper Associates; at the time, it only served Milwaukee and Chicago.[7][8] In June 2014, SpotHero raised an additional $4.5 million in funding and announced new board of directors members, including LinkedIn's Mike Gamson, Match.com's Sam Yagan, and venture capitalist Sam Guren.[9] The company raised $20 million in Series B funding in 2015,[10] and an additional $30 million in a Series C round in July 2017.[11] In September 2018, the company raised an additional $10 million, bringing its total raised since launching to $68 million.[12] In August 2019 SpotHero announced $50 million in Series D funding led by Macquarie Capital, bringing the company's total funding to date to $118 million.[13]
Growth and expansion
[edit]Between 2011 and 2013, the company expanded from 5 employees to 22, grew to seven business markets (Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., Boston, Baltimore, Newark, and Milwaukee) and opened an office in New York City.[3] By August 2015, SpotHero serviced 5 additional cities: Denver, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.[14][15] In July 2016, the company expanded to Los Angeles,[16] and in January 2017 added 13 additional cities, including Austin, Indianapolis, Miami and San Diego.[17] In 2020, the company was recognized as the fifteenth-largest privately held consumer marketplace.[18] As of November 2020, the company services over 400 cities in North America with a network of over 11,000 facilities.[19]
SpotHero for Business was launched in March 2017, as a business-focused service with features and tools for paying, managing and organizing parking expenses.[20] The company also launched a free developer platform to help businesses integrate parking reservations into their existing apps.[21] In May 2017, SpotHero announced a partnership with commuter employee benefits administrator WageWorks allowing users to pay pre-tax dollars for daily parking near their places of work.[22]
In 2018, SpotHero was named to Time magazine's inaugural list of 50 Genius Companies that are inventing the future.[23][24] According to Time, "By allowing users to reserve a spot rather than circling dense city centers, apps like SpotHero can help stem congestion and pollution."[23] That year, SpotHero purchased 500 Waze beacons for $15,000 and gave them to the Chicago Department of Transportation to install in the lower roads of downtown Chicago, broadcasting an open signal so GPS will work properly.[25][26] Following an integration of its technology with Google Assistant and Hertz rental cars, SpotHero announced that it had readied 500 parking facilities in Chicago for driverless cars.[27][28]
In March 2019, SpotHero partnered with transit app Moovit to offer drivers the chance to view and book off-street parking near transit stations in San Francisco, to help ease road congestion in the Bay Area.[29][30] In June 2019, it was reported that SpotHero was partnering with Waze, a GPS navigation software app owned by Google, to link their navigation and parking into a unified user experience.[31]
In 2023, the company launched Flex Rates, a customizable dynamic pricing product allowing operators of parking garages or lots to adjust prices based on real-time data.[32]
Acquisitions
[edit]SpotHero acquired San Francisco-based peer-to-peer parking marketplace ParkPlease in April 2015.[33][34]
In April 2017, SpotHero acquired Parking Panda, a Baltimore-based services and event parking company.[35][36] The acquisition expanded SpotHero into Canada, and brought the number of parking locations the company could reserve at to over 5,000.[35][36]
In November 2020, SpotHero acquired the Toronto-based app Rover Parking, helping the company access thousands more parking locations across Canada.[37]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "500 of SpotHero's Chicago Parking Areas Now Ready for Driverless Cars". Americaninno.com. July 10, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
- ^ "SpotHero launches developer platform to expand its parking inventory into third-party apps". Venturebeat.com. February 14, 2017. Archived from the original on March 19, 2017. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
- ^ a b "On Demand Parking App SpotHero Raises $4.5 Million In Series A Funding". MarketWatch. June 11, 2014. Retrieved January 14, 2015.
- ^ Kate Rogers, "SpotHero: An app that makes parking reservations," CNBC, May 7, 2015.
- ^ Kia Kokalitcheva, "SpotHero launches its parking app in SF, and on-demand valet startups should worry," Archived January 17, 2017, at the Wayback Machine VentureBeat, December 9, 2014.
- ^ Alex Moazed, "SpotHero Paves the Way for Parking," Inc., November 18, 2016.
- ^ "Chicago's SpotHero Raises 2.5mm to Bring Sanity to Urban Parking". Forbes. December 13, 2012. Retrieved January 14, 2015.
- ^ Rao, Leena (December 13, 2012). "SpotHero Raises $2.5M From Battery, Lightbank To Help You Reserve Parking In Garages". Tech Crunch. Retrieved January 14, 2015.
- ^ Janega, James (June 11, 2014). "SpotHero announces new funding, board members". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on June 14, 2014. Retrieved January 14, 2015.
- ^ Kristen Hall-Geisler, "SpotHero is ready for the future of autonomous parking," TechCrunch, September 8, 2016.
- ^ John Pletz, "SpotHero tops off with another $30 million," Crain's Chicago Business, July 18, 2017.
- ^ "SpotHero raises $10 million to hire developers, upgrade its parking reservation tech". Chicago Tribune. September 6, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
- ^ "SpotHero Announces $50 Million Series D Funding Led by Macquarie Capital". www.businesswire.com. August 22, 2019. Retrieved November 1, 2020.
- ^ Matney, Lucas (August 19, 2015). "On-Demand Parking Service SpotHero Raises $20M In Series B". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ^ Kokalitcheva, Kia (August 19, 2015). "Forget valet apps — SpotHero raises $20 million to let people park their own cars". Fortune. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
- ^ Ally Marotti, "SpotHero expands to LA, plans to add other West Coast cities", Chicago Tribune, July 19, 2016.
- ^ Meg Graham, "Chicago-based parking startup SpotHero pulls into 13 new markets", Chicago Tribune, January 26, 2017.
- ^ "The a16z Marketplace 100: Index". a16z.com. February 18, 2020. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
- ^ "SpotHero raises $50 million to bring underutilized parking spaces online". Venture Beat. August 22, 2019. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
- ^ Paul Sawers, "SpotHero for Business launches to help employees submit parking expenses directly" Archived July 15, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, VentureBeat, March 15, 2017.
- ^ Paul Sawers, "SpotHero launches developer platform to expand its parking inventory into third-party apps" Archived March 19, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, VentureBeat, February 14, 2017.
- ^ Cheryl V. Jackson, "SpotHero, WageWorks team up for pretax on-demand parking near your job", Chicago Tribune, May 16, 2017.
- ^ a b "Genius Companies 2018: SpotHero". Time. Archived from the original on June 9, 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
- ^ "Chicago's SpotHero, Cameo join Apple, Amazon and other tech giants on Time list of companies 'inventing the future'". Chicago Tribune. October 4, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
- ^ "Waze Lights the Beacons to Guide Drivers Through Chicago's Tangled Streets". Wired. September 12, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
- ^ "Chicago is installing beacons to keep your GPS from freaking out on Lower Wacker". Chicago Tribune. August 29, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
- ^ "SpotHero is getting parking garages ready for driverless cars". Chicago Tribune. July 23, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
- ^ "SpotHero introduces 500 autonomous car-ready garages in Chicago". Venturebeat.com. July 10, 2018. Archived from the original on August 20, 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
- ^ "Moovit trials smart parking service in San Francisco". Cities Today. March 14, 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
- ^ "Moovit taps SpotHero to show parking spots in multi-modal transit app". Venturebeat.com. March 12, 2019. Archived from the original on August 20, 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
- ^ "Waze and SpotHero partnership aims to cut parking-based congestion". Traffic Technology Today. June 28, 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
- ^ Council, Jared (January 29, 2020). "SpotHero to Launch AI System for Dynamically Priced Parking". Wall Street Journal.
- ^ Amina Elahi, "SpotHero buys ParkPlease in attempt to bolster San Francisco presence," Chicago Tribune, April 21, 2015.
- ^ John Pletz, "SpotHero acquires San Francisco competitor," Crain's Chicago Business, April 21, 2015.
- ^ a b Amina Elahi, "SpotHero buys Baltimore-based competitor Parking Panda," Chicago Tribune, April 13, 2017.
- ^ a b Kristen Hall-Geisler, "SpotHero acquires Parking Panda," TechCrunch, April 13, 2017.
- ^ Chen, I-Chun (September 10, 2020). "SpotHero to buy Rover Parking to continue expansion in Canada". Chicago Business Journal.