Parking Startup SpotHero Acquires Competitor Parking Panda

SpotHero, the company behind the most downloaded parking reservation app, announced that it has acquired Parking Panda, the leading business-to-business parking solution provider in the U.S. and Canada. The move puts SpotHero on track to cover nearly 5,000 parking locations and park 20 million cars in 2017, significantly expanding the company’s presence in North America.

Chicago-based SpotHero, which was founded in 2011 by Mark Lawrence and Lawrence Kiss, allows users to search for available parking spots and reserve spaces by paying ahead of time. For people living in large cities like Los Angeles and New York, looking for parking can be a constant daily struggle. That’s why SpotHero, according to the company, has facilitated  more than seven million parking transactions in the last six years. The company’s novel solution to the challenges of city parking has attracted more than $27 million in funding from investors, including Insight Venture Partners, Chicago Ventures, and Battery Ventures.

Parking Panda, also founded in 2011, appears at first glance to be a similar mobile app for finding and booking parking spots. But the company, which to date has raised just shy of $5 million, has quietly pivoted to become a competitive provider of parking for events and entertainment venues. Parking Panda has established more than 800 strategic partnerships in the last several years, including several large-scale deals with NHL, NFL, MLB, and NBA teams. In 2016, the company also entered the Canadian market by partnering with Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), the leading professional sports and commercial real estate company in Canada.

Parking Panda’s B2B robust partner ecosystem represents a significant opportunity for SpotHero, which recently launched a SpotHero for Business offering, providing businesses and their employees with mobile app tools to manage parking expenses.

“We’re thrilled to combine forces with Parking Panda to bring easy parking to more drivers faster,” said Mark Lawrence, SpotHero’s co-founder and CEO. “SpotHero’s consumer focus and great mobile experience are further strengthened by Parking Panda’s strong B2B technology and partnerships.”

Lawrence will continue to serve as the combined company’s CEO, while Parking Panda’s leadership team, including CEO and founder Adam Zilberbaum and COO James Bain, will remain with the company.