Charlotte-based Passport and car services app Way.com have partnered to extend parking services for millions of customers.
Doug Rogers, chief revenue officer, said this is a continuation of Passport's strategy to layer third-party capabilities on top of its platform. The transportation software company, founded in 2010, focuses on digital parking payments, enforcement, permits and other mobility services. He said Passport seeks to make parking access easier and more equitable for consumers.
Way.com's parking services focus on off-street and garage parking. The Passport partnership adds options to manage curbside parking.
"We're pretty excited for what what this will mean in terms of providing much more options for those consumers and constituents and taking any of the friction out of that experience as best as possible," Rogers said.
Financial details of the partnership were not disclosed.
Bhumi Bhutani, co-founder at Way.com, said Passport and Way.com have been in conversations for more than a year. Way.com, based in California, has about 4 million users across large metros. The two are in the final stages of integrating their technologies. Bhutani expects to wrap that process by the end of January.
The product and engineering teams at both companies are collaborating on this integration, which Bhutani described as a huge undertaking.
"We basically made a plug-and-play model," Bhutani said. "There's definitely a new and expanded customer base through this partnership as well as new coverage."
Rogers said there is a strong overlap between the markets the two companies serve. Bhutani named Austin, Texas, as one market where Way.com is expanding. It already has airport parking services there. Passport also has a presence in Austin.
Passport has a strong growth trajectory. This was Passport's fourth consecutive year on the Inc. 5000 list for fastest-growing private companies, reporting 172% revenue growth from 2017 to 2020. The firm raised another $90 million this spring from Sixth Street Growth. Passport has recently brought on new executives, including Rogers, to position it for the next growth phase.
Passport is in conversations for other partnerships, Rogers said, but he declined to give more details.
Earlier this year, Passport fully rolled out a partnership with Google Maps after a pilot period, allowing users to pay for parking through Maps. Prior to that, Passport launched a similar capability that enables Google Pay users to access services without downloading the full app. There are also partnerships with Barnacle and iAccess Life.
Passport works with more than 800 cities, universities and agencies across the U.S. and Canada. It employs about 250 people, with 70% of those in Charlotte.
