Today, close to a million people will park their car on the island of Montréal. They will spend a total of 60k hours looking for a space. Not to mention that 5000 lucky Montréalers will have a gift on their windshield this evening.

It's unfortunate, as most of the time, this doesn't stem from a bad intention. This is why we started Prkng, aiming to solve what felt like two simple challenges: Am I allowed to park here? And when am I supposed to move my car?

With a clear idea and a simple prototype, we secured a pre-seed round of $200,000, empowering us to build a team of five.

We were aware from the start that users would be in the driver's seat while using the app — and all their attention should be dedicated to their surrounding. That's why we aimed for the app to be incredibly simple: We streamlined layers of information to allow key information to shine, ensuring users can easily pick up where they left off.

Upon opening the app, you instantly see available parking around you. Check-in with a simple tap, and we even send you reminders to avoid a ticket.

With a strategic media push, we reached the 10,000 users mark within the first week of launch. In just a year, we achieved 65,000+ users, averaging 13,000 weekly active users and 2,000 check-ins per day.

Leveraging our API and collected data, we positioned Prkng as a valuable player in the intelligent transportation sector, contributing to a better understanding of local traffic tendencies for the benefit of the city and a wide range of stakeholders.

Passionate about car-sharing and recognizing its transformative impact on urban mobility, we crafted a tailored experience for car-sharing drivers. We also launched two essential features: support for residential permits and a snow removal schedule.

Montréal served as our testing ground, and following a successful debut, we expanded to New York City, Seattle, Boston, and Quebec City within our first year.

With the available open data, we crafted the most user-friendly parking app — However, we relied on data updated by public entities, and in the case of Montréal, its accuracy diminished over time.

Balancing a free B2C app with a B2B service to generate revenue for urban assets that are often public posed a significant challenge. Developing IP and innovative solutions that bypass public data was time-consuming and became a barrier to our growth model.

Despite the success story in Montréal and our established partnerships, we struggled to convince investors that replicating this success globally was easily achievable, highlighting the limitations of relying solely on a regional strategy for our model.