Finding parking in the city may always be a hassle, but ParkMobile makes paying for the spot a little easier — no more digging for coins or worrying about a lost ticket. And with a new Google partnership, the process is being streamlined even further.
The Atlanta startup has a platform that lets customers pay for parking through their phone, making it a contactless process with built-in benefits, such as reminders for when the payment has expired and where spots are available.
ParkMobile said Feb. 17 it's integrated into Google Maps navigation, meaning that after a person gets to their location, they can pay for parking through the navigation app rather than clicking over to ParkMobile.
CEO Jon Ziglar said the startup currently aids parking transactions in more than 450 cities across the United States. The Google Maps integration has launched in about 240 cities, and the rest should go live in the next two months, Ziglar said.
ParkMobile already had a partnership with Google Pay, which enabled users to pay for parking without downloading the ParkMobile app.
With the Google Maps integration, a “pay for parking” button will be in the navigation app, which takes the user to a ParkMobile section where they enter the parking details and pay.
The partnership announcement comes after a year of growth for ParkMobile, despite less people parking throughout cities because of the pandemic.
The startup has just under 200 employees, none of whom were laid off during the pandemic, Ziglar said. Instead, he took a forward-looking approach to develop more features on the platform in anticipation for the post-pandemic world.
“Our solution stops people from touching a physical device, therefore stopping the spread of germs from people collecting cash or coin,” Ziglar said. “You couldn’t pick a better time for when this solution of contactless, frictionless parking transactions is needed.”
This integration, as well as ParkMobile’s continued product development, is also revving up for a future with autonomous vehicles.
“An autonomous vehicle cannot put a quarter in a meter,” Ziglar said. “It can’t pull its window down and push a ticket to get a gate to open.”
Ziglar said ParkMobile aims to be a network that can integrate into different mobility transactions, much like the Visa card integrated with other businesses. Eventually, car interfaces could have ParkMobile integrated into their features.
Ziglar plans to continue building the ParkMobile network throughout the U.S., and then globally, while adding new features that cover an array of services for drivers.
For example, ParkMobile built out a platform that could allow cities or parking operators to manage all of their parking transactions, even if it’s through different vendors.
“We expanded the business more this year than any year in our history,” Ziglar said. “We’ve expanded our product set to really address the expanding needs of drivers and of cities.”
