Making a beeline for underutilised parking lots, Dutch startup parks in €30 million for European expansion

Amsterdam-based startup that opens private car parks to the public, ParkBee has raised €30 million. The round was led by clean energy investor Koolen Industries and saw the participation of several tech entrepreneurs and investors, as well as existing shareholders, including Statkraft Ventures and Innovation Quarter.

The new capital infusion will drive the platform’s continued expansion, both in existing markets and across Europe. The platform will soon roll out its products in Germany, France, Belgium and Ireland. Currently, ParkBee operates in the Netherlands and the U.K.

Revolutionising the parking industry, the platform’s technology acts as a parking platform, connecting car park spots to drivers using RingGo, JustPark, Connect and Pay-By-Phone.

Talking about how the platform is transforming the underutilised parking spaces in the U.K., WP Boerma, CEO, ParkBee said: “Car park owners who sign up with us benefit from accessing a demand pool of 45 million users via these apps. This has driven over 350% expansion in the number of off-street spots ParkBee offers across the U.K. over the last three years.”

Kees Koolen, founder and CEO, Koolen Industries said: “ParkBee has an attractive and highly scalable business model. With its strong partners on both demand and supply, it is primed for rapid expansion throughout Europe. Its dense network of garages offers great opportunities to further facilitate the transition to EVs in European cities. This transition is of key importance to the transition to clean energy in general, and also to the quality of people’s lives in our cities by both reducing noise and air pollution.”