Mobility tech firm AppyParking has closed a £7.6 million Series A round.
The London-based company aims to transform parking for motorists and empower local authorities and car park operators to better manage their assets.
The funding was led by West Hill Capital, the London-based venture capital firm, with participation from existing investors Aviva Ventures and Breed Reply, and includes new strategic investment from Hyundai Motor Corporation and Sumitomo Corporation.
The investment brings AppyParking’s total funding since launch to over £11m and will enable the company to accelerate product development, support domestic and international growth and continue to expand its team.
Founded in 2013 with the launch of its award-winning smart parking app, AppyParking now hosts the largest dataset of the UK’s kerbside restrictions which is aligned with the recently announced data standard by the Alliance of Parking Data Standards (APDS), with more than 400 towns and cities forecasted to be mapped by the end of this year.
Dan Hubert, founder and CEO of AppyParking, said: “Across the world ‘Smart City’ projects are underway to develop autonomous vehicle and intelligent mobility solutions to help save our cities from grinding to a standstill.
“The challenge is real and technological innovation is racing ahead of the legacy infrastructure in place to manage a key piece of city real estate – the kerb.
“By empowering local authorities with the tools that help them better manage and open up their kerbside, we’re helping them to address key issues like congestion and air quality, whilst also laying the future foundations for truly sustainable intelligent mobility.
“It’s a real achievement for the whole team to secure this investment and I’m extremely excited to have Hyundai and Sumitomo on board to support our mission.
“Work is already underway to take our mission global as we aim to make the humble kerb work for everyone, and help cities thrive.”
Takashi Yamana, president and CEO of Sumitomo Corporation Europe, commented: “With existing mobility service across the Nordic region and ‘Smart City’ projects in Europe and Asia, we expect through this investment we can harness AppyParking’s technology and innovative approach to support these existing businesses, whilst of course helping accelerate their growth internationally.”
Dr. Yun-seong Hwang, Vice President of Hyundai Motor Company added: “We believe that parking and kerbside access are key components to enable the full potential of any future mobility strategy.
“We recognise that AppyParking’s competencies and technology could solve important parts of the mobility ecosystem and this aligns with Hyundai’s strategic vision.”