December is quite the month for entrepreneurial e-commerce companies who specialize in parking. Last week we reported that Chicago parking reservations outfit SpotHero had raised $ 2.5 million right as it left Excelerate Labs. On Wednesday, fellow Chicago parking space aggregator ParkWhiz revealed a $ 2 million Series A round of its own.
The round was led by local VC Hyde Park Venture Partners with participation from Hyde Park Angels, Amicus Capital, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Gerry Tan of Y Combinator, former Navteq CTO Amreesh Modi, and Henry Feinberg, a former partner at Technology Crossover Ventures.
While SpotHero is just getting started, offering its online parking spot brokering services only in Chicago and Milwaukee, ParkWhiz has been around the block. Though it’s just now raising a Series A round, ParkWhiz launched in 2006 focusing on special event parking. It has since expanded into day-to-day spot reservations and now has an inventory of 3 million parking spaces and relationships with 2000 parking lots nationwide. ParkWhiz says it has generated $ 10 million in revenues for lot owners in the last six years.
The company has struck deals with StubHub, TicketsNow, professional and collegiate sports teams, and big sports and entertainment venues to handle online parking reservations for their predictable crowded events. In 2011, it parked 15 percent of the 2011 Super Bowl XLV in Dallas, and it doubled that number in 2012 for the Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis.
And what about this year? ParkWhiz is hoping to break its Super Bowl record in New Orleans this coming February. In case you’re wondering, ParkWhiz is charging between $ 200 to $ 325 parking in a lot right next to the Superdome.
Parking lot image courtesy of Alex 92287.
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