It's hard to think of an urban edifice with a more mundane existence than that of a parking garage. They hold cars -- and not much more.
Austin startup FlashParking sees these concrete landscapes as fertile fields for new business opportunities beyond payment processing.
For example, consider all the dockless scooters in Austin; in many cases, gig workers are picking them up at the end of the day and driving them out of downtown for charging and maintenance, FlashParking founder Juan Rodriguez said.
"Isn’t it ironic that there’s a garage that’s empty next to those scooters that could provide that same service?” he asked.
FlashParking aims to provide that and many other value-adding options to parking garage owners through its business-facing mobility hub platform. And investors see a big opportunity.
On Wednesday, FlashParking announced it has raised a $60 million strategic investment from L Catterton, a private equity firm in Connecticut. The money will help FlashParking hire about 150 new employees in Austin and continue expanding its mobility hub operating system.
FlashParking, founded in 2011, already has about 150 employees, most of whom are based at the company's only office near South Lamar and Highway 360. Rodriguez said the company previously raised about $5 million in funding across two rounds in 2012 and 2016. It has grown 100% each year since its formation, and it has been profitable for the past two years.
So this strategic round is expected to help FlashParking capture about 40% of the U.S. parking market in the next three to five years, Rodriguez said.
“This is money for us to do world domination," he said.
That's a long ways from where it started in 2011 with valet services and, later, automated garages. But the company's team saw that parking garages were largely static, poor in data and offered few other purposes than holding cars.
They began envisioning new uses for garages. They could act as a resting spot for Uber and Lyft drivers. They could charge electric vehicles. They could house and charge scooters, something Chicago's SpotHero has also approached. Drones could land on their rooftops with deliveries. Deliveries could be sent to vehicles. And they could create more business opportunities for garage owners while giving consumers more options, too.
"We're really focusing on changing what a parking garage does," Rodriguez said.
FlashParking is providing many of these features through partnerships and integrations with other businesses that are available to garage owners through its platform. Its tech is being used in 30-plus garages in Austin, and it is being used to manage parking and other services at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, which is the world's largest medical facility and has a massive paid parking system.
Rodriguez also said the company sees emerging opportunities as cities across the country update and implement smart city plans that call for reduced congestion on city streets.
"We think we play a key role in bringing that to life," he said.
