City parking took a technological leap last week when two industry giants formed a new partnership.
Smarking, a provider of data analytics software to the parking industry, and Citizens Parking’s Icon division, New York City’s largest operator of parking facilities, will harness the power of Smarking’s data analytics platform across Icon’s entire portfolio of more than 300 parking facilities in Manhattan’s most high-profile business districts.
Spun out of MIT in 2013, Smarking has developed a first-of-its-kind business intelligence platform that enables parking professionals to make business decisions 10-20 times faster than industry standard.
Fairstead Capital, a New York City real estate investment firm who also has ties to MIT, is an investor in Smarking.
“Our partners are saving hundreds of hours throughout the year by automating the way they compile data. Smarking is drastically reducing the laborious process of exporting Excel reports and cataloging emails to understand operations data. Parking executives and portfolio managers can now monitor and optimize their business processes with actionable real-time data from their laptops or mobile devices,” said Wen Sang, CEO of Smarking.
“Manhattan is one of the most energetic and fast-paced places in the world. Parking demand here mirrors the vibrancy of the city — always intense but in new and exciting ways,” said Jerry Skillet, CEO of Citizens Parking, Inc.
“We plan to leverage Smarking’s analytics platform to better understand the behavior of our customers and ensure that our services are tailored to meet the dynamic needs of our client base.”
“We are thrilled to be working with Jerry and his team in New York City,” said Diego Torres- Palma, Director of Growth at Smarking.
“Our primary goal here at Smarking is to help our clients and partners stay ahead of the market and achieve long term success by bringing data analytics ,technology into their organizations. We are truly excited to see what Citizen’s smart and passionate team can accomplish with our platform.”
Keith Rabois, a Silicon Valley executive, and senior investment partner at Khosla Ventures, said, “For many times when technology shifted the landscape of a traditional industry, players that proactively adopt to adapt survived the inflection point, and they’d win a lot more than even before. I’m excited to see it happening in parking with the tech solutions made available by companies like Smarking.”
In the future Smarking hopes to reduce traffic congestion and enable millions of drivers in need of smart parking solutions.
Similar to real estate, the parking industry is witnessing a renaissance brought on by the digitization of inventory.
Smarking’s goal is to provide the data infrastructure for the parking industry, ultimately reducing traffic congestion where we work and live, and routing cars to their true destination — parking spaces.
