Chicago on-demand parking startup ParkWhiz raised a new round of funding to bring its parking app to more cities.
ParkWhiz announced Friday that it has raised $20 million in a Series D round led by NewSpring, a Pennsylvania-based private equity firm. Other backers in the round include Baird Capital, Jump Capital and Beringea.
The startup has now raised $56 million since it launched in 2007.
ParkWhiz, an app that lets people find, book and pay for off-street parking, provides drivers access to parking lots and garages in over 190 cities across North America. The new funding will allow it to expand its footprint into new cities. It will also use the funds to improve its connected and autonomous technology, the company said.
“Off-street parking is a large, growing market internationally and we are proud to be a leader in the space,” Yona Shtern, CEO of ParkWhiz, said in a statement. “The rapid adoption of connected and autonomous mobility services coupled with our complementary business models creates an extremely attractive market opportunity for us to expand into and foster new partnerships with consumer brands, parking operators, and asset owners."
In addition to its app aimed at consumers, ParkWhiz has also focused on adding businesses to its client roster, partnering with sports teams, event venues, hotels, airlines, vehicle navigation systems and other companies to be the preferred parking provider to their customers. ParkWhiz says it has more than 300 distribution partners.
ParkWhiz brought in Shtern in March to be the company's next CEO, replacing Aashish Dalal, who transitioned to chairman of the board. Shtern was previously the CEO of Beyond the Rack, an e-commerce fashion company. In May, ParkWhiz acquired CodiPark, a Tel-Aviv parking startup that built a more seamless way to pay for parking.
ParkWhiz's funding comes the same week as its Chicago-based rival SpotHero also raised a new round, landing $10 million from its existing investors.
