Contxto – Finding parking, paying for parking, generally, anything that has to do with parking is still quite rudimentary in Latin America. But with coronavirus, mobility needs touchless solutions, and Mexican Parkimovil is freshly funded to bring this tech to the rest of the region.
Last Monday (17), the startup announced it raised equity capital for an undisclosed amount.
Proeza Ventures, a fund specializing in mobility startups, led the round. It was joined by Liil Ventures, Capital Invent, as well as a few unnamed companies and family offices.
Parkimovil will use the funds to scale further within Mexico as well as launch into other parts of Latin America.
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Parkimovil for smarter cities
As the new normal calls for more touchless tech, Parkimóvil is coming in with a bundle of solutions. Examples include facial recognition applications, access controls, digital payments, as well as electronic parking meters.
This variety of products was just one of the motives that drew Proeza to the Parkimóvil team.
“We were pleasantly surprised with the company’s traction and we believe this is only the beginning and hope it will soon be in more cities enabling a large variety of mobility services while developing more network effects which, without a doubt, will be of great benefit to Parkimóvil‘s users,” says Rodolfo Elías Dieck, Managing Director at Proeza Ventures.
For the startup, the overlying goal is to build cities with more fluid mobility—a pressing issue given a large part of the population in Latin America are clustered in cities.
Big cities and mobility
By the numbers: 8 out of 10 people from Latam and the Caribbean live in cities, according to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Likewise, it expects 86 percent of the population will be urbanized by 2050.
Truly the region loves big metropolises and people continue migrating to urban hubs.
Not because they adore the smog and huge crowds—those are just additional perks. Rather they do so in search of job opportunities and basic services. This has inevitably led to congested spaces and significant challenges for governments and startups alike.
Add in a highly contagious disease like Covid-19 and what do you get?
The perfect storm to motivate authorities and investors to contribute to mobility solutions.
Related articles: Tech and startups from Mexico!
-ML
