Streetline, a US-based start-up that uses sensors that allow people to find parking, has raised $25m in its series C round from a consortium including the corporate venturing units from bank Citigroup and chip maker Qualcomm as new investors.
Alongside Citi Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures in the C round were venture capital firms True Ventures, which led the consortium, Sutter Hill, Fontinalis Partners and RockPort Capital Partners.
Streetline closed its B round at $15m in June 2011 co-led by Fontinalis, which is backed by the family money of car maker Ford’s founders, and RockPort.
Quinn Li, vice president of Qualcomm Ventures, said: “Parking is a $25bn industry in the United States alone, and the opportunity to rethink the whole parking experience is poised to accelerate dramatically in 2013 and beyond”.
Ward Marsh, managing director of municipal securities division at Citi, added: “City leaders must harness the possibilities of technology and new financial thinking to address critical efficiency reform, modernize urban infrastructure, and provide socially inclusive access to public services.”
In April last year, Citi lent Streetline $25m to help with parking in cities in collaboration with New York-listed computer group IBM.
The financing will enable cities to acquire smart parking technology at no initial upfront cost so they can adopt Streetline’s cloud-based smart parking solutions on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Over the past 12 months, Streetline said it had expanded its real-time smart parking services to more than 30 cities and universities, including its first two European deployments in Braunschweig, Germany, and Birmingham, UK.
In November 2010, IBM gave Streetline its global entrepreneur of the year award and said it would expand its competition to emerging markets, including Brazil, China, Mexico, Poland and Turkey.
Streetline was selected from more than 600 entries worldwide to IBM’s SmartCamp programme, which brings together start-ups trying to improve the environment, energy efficiency, traffic congestion and healthcare.
Zia Yusef, founder of Streetline (centre in the picture), received the IBM award from Jim Corgel, left, alongside Streetline chief technology officer Mark Noworolski.