The developers of the investment app Wotan, which was sold to Dragon Capital in 2021, are working on a new startup — SharePark. It develops an assistant that selects the best option for solving the driver’s needs by analyzing their location using artificial intelligence. This was reported to AIN.UA by the co-founder of the startup, Sergii Kravetskiy.
What services SharePark offers
SharePark was founded by four Ukrainians Sergii Kravetskiy, Andrii Varnava, Anna Chіchkan, and Rostyslav Diuzhev. The company’s range of solutions for drivers and parking lot owners include:
- For drivers, the app offers such services as finding and booking parking spaces (municipal parking lots, private parking lots), electric charging stations, car washes, as well as services for paying fines, insurance, or EU toll roads.
- For parking space owners, the platform allows for hourly, daily, or monthly rentals of parking spaces through the app and a special device for the automatic blocking of spaces.
“While being in Europe during the invasion, I volunteered for our army and traveled over 30,000 km behind the wheel. I felt a sharp problem with parking, which was repeated regardless of the city or country… Just like in Ukraine, every country has mobile apps for paying for parking, but there is not a single app that shows the availability of free spaces with the ability to book,”
Kravetskiy told AIN.Capital.
Blockers production
The founders are currently undergoing a training program at the 1991 Accelerator to organize the production of the blockers. According to Kravetskiy, the startup already has an order for 12,000 blockers in Bulgaria.
“These are national companies and municipalities, but I can’t name them yet. Juscutum is supporting us in the legal field, working on European regulations, according to which we have the right to equip both municipal and private parking lots. After the implementation of the pilot legal project in Bulgaria, we plan to scale it to other EU countries,”
Kravetskiy clarified.
The cost of the device will range from €110 to €250, depending on the configuration:
- can work on batteries or from the mains,
- with a car presence sensor, warns the driver about theft,
- controlled via 4G or Wi-Fi network,
- the price is also affected by the volume and timing of delivery.
SharePark’s plans
Throughout the year, the company has being developed with the team’s own investments received from the sale of Wotan to strategic investor Treeum, owned by the Dragon Capital. Most of the funds were allocated to the infrastructure and blocker prototypes development. Currently, the SharePark team is looking for a pre-seed investment of €200,000, which is needed to implement the strategies and deliver the first batch of blockers.
The SharePark app is scheduled for release in mid-May 2023. The waiting list for early access to the app is already open. The app will have two monetization options:
- users pay for parking, and parking lots give up to 10% of the transaction fee;
- users buy a SharePark subscription (from €2.5-4.5 per month, depending on the country).
“The user receives a discount on municipal parking, parking garages, private parking spaces, and additional functionality, such as renting out their parking space by the hour or by the day and earning money on it. The subscription holder also gets access to the network of services provided by our partners, which we are currently expanding: insurance, car washes, electric charging stations, road tolls, car dealerships, car services, and more. We give our commission to the driver in the form of a lower price than in the retail market. Thus, a user who buys a SharePark subscription for €30 per year saves on car-related expenses of €300 per year,”
said Sergii.
Why it’s interesting
According to the developers, the global Parking Management market was estimated at $4.38 billion in 2022. According to analytical agency Research and Markets, over the next 7 years, the market will grow to $10 billion with an average annual growth rate of 12.1%
At the same time, according to Research and Markets, the parking problem cost Europeans almost $88 billion in 2019. SharePark plans to help Ukrainians and EU residents solve them.
