Mobile parking application co sPARK raises $1.5m

In October the company will launch its application to find parking spaces in Tel Aviv at the touch of a button.

19 August 12 19:31, Roy Goldenberg

Mobil parking application co sPARK has raised $1.5 million from Geut Holdings in a first-round of funding. The company has developed a cellular application for locating parking spaces in busy city centers. sPARK was founded by CEO Eran Balter, Tal Dekel and Or Bar-On.

The company has so far maintained a low profile and even the press release about the closing of the seed funding does not reveal many details about the company's technology. It does say that the concept behind the product is a mobile application to provide a real solution to the frustration, time-wasting and expense of looking for parking spaces in city centers. Thus at the touch of a button drivers will be able to find spaces on the streets and in car parks.

The start up is already dreaming big and after Tel Aviv the entrepreneurs are hoping to expand to New York, London, Paris and other cities. This is Geut Holdings second investment in a start up.

The company has seven employees. Balter, 36, is a software engineer and Technion graduate with extensive experience in leading and developing software products. Dekel, 35, is a former VP technology of the Athlone Global Security venture capital fund with expertise in internal security investments, while Bar-On, 32, is a marketing manager in the social digital media.

Balter said, "Everbody knows how hard it is to find a parking space, whether you work or are visiting a city center. As found by a market survey we conducted at our inception, this difficulty is so significant that it influences important decisions such as choosing a place to live or job. Our application provides a solution to this problem with innovative technology."

sPARK is not the only Israeli company tackling this problem. Parkspool offers places in privately owned car parks for NIS 7.35 per hour. Just Park It has an application that enables drivers to locate the closest privately owned car park for a NIS 1.5 fee. ParkNet is a GPS based application that alerts drivers when someone is leaving a parking space and guides them there.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 19, 2012

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