JustPark Startup Invites Public To Join As Shareholders
JustPark – the UK startup that launched the world’s first in-car parking app with BMW and has already saved Brits over £8M in parking fees – is launching a £1M crowdfunding round and will be inviting the public to join the company as shareholders.
JustPark, the pioneering app and website that connects parking space owners with drivers looking for a convenient space, has today announced it is raising £1 million through equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube.
After a successful year in which JustPark acquired its 675,000th user, doubled its gross profits and grew its annual booking revenue to £3.7 million, the startup is now inviting users and members of the public via Crowdcube to join its journey as shareholders. By setting a minimum investment amount of just £10, London-based JustPark aims to encourage even the most modest investor to stake a claim in the company’s future growth.
The money raised during the equity crowdfunding campaign will be used to build JustPark’s community of users, both in the UK and around the world. The company also plans to develop new technology to tackle the pain in parking. Last year, JustPark successfully launched an in-car app in collaboration with BMW, that let drivers manage the entire parking process directly from their dashboards for the first time.
Circling the streets in search of a parking space is an age-old problem that accounts for approximately 30% of urban traffic and 106 days of wasted time over the average lifespan. Research done by JustPark confirms the misery, revealing that London is the most expensive city in the world for parking. It surpasses cities such as Sydney, Paris and Tokyo, costing motorists an average of £45 per day – half as much again as the typical price paid by drivers in New York.
Anthony Eskinazi, founder of JustPark, says: “Parking is one of the most dysfunctional parts of city life. It’s stressful, inefficient and can be extortionately expensive. With JustPark, our users are providing each other with the solution to this headache, opening up their underused parking spaces to drivers and saving them approximately £8.5 million in parking costs so far.”
He continues: “Equity crowdfunding is the perfect way for JustPark to continue in the collaborative spirit that underpins the entire business. It allows us to work together with our most passionate users to build the business to greater heights.”
As well as quarterly briefings, JustPark’s new shareholders will be invited to annual gatherings – known as ‘ParkFests’ – complete with progress reports and afterparties.
Eskinazi adds: “We can’t wait to work with a new generation of JustPark investors to solve the parking headache together and make cities run more efficiently.”
New shareholders will join JustPark’s existing backers: BMW i Ventures, the venture capital arm of automotive giant BMW; and Index Ventures, one of Europe’s leading technology investors whose previous successes include Skype, Dropbox and Just-Eat. Index Ventures will convert a loan of £500,000 to shares at the same price per share as the crowd upon the successful completion of the crowdfunding campaign.
Luke Lang, co-founder of Crowdcube, commented: “Giving people the opportunity to invest in a tech startup backed by Index Ventures, one of Europe’s top venture capital firms, and BMW through Crowdcube is a very exciting prospect. We’ve seen a growing trend towards more established organizations with strong entrepreneurial teams opting to raise growth finance through Crowdcube.”
Some key points:
–Parking app has saved UK drivers approximately £8.5M in parking costs launches crowdfunding campaign
-Startup’s gross profits double and booking revenue hits £3.7M in past year
-JustPark’s 675,000 users and members of the public are invited to be part of its future growth and invest from £10
About JustPark
JustPark is one of the UK’s leading examples of the sharing economy, the economic and social model that lets people receive goods and services from each other through online marketplaces rather than from large, established companies.
Since 2006, JustPark (formerly ParkatmyHouse) has been connecting drivers in need of convenient and affordable parking with property owners who want to earn money from renting out their underused parking space. By bringing a variety of parking spaces – from the largest car parks to individual private parking spaces, churches and hotels – onto one platform, JustPark has become the simplest way to find and book a parking space.
