The future of parking - made in Germany

• Startup evopark (founded 2014) and family business Scheidt & Bachmann (founded 1872) offer completely seamless parking experience to thousands of drivers
• Focus on providing an end-to-end digital parking experience and effective yield management tools for car park operators, being fully compatible to the current infrastructure
• After successful pilot market in Germany, numerous off-street parking locations in more than 20 European cities will be online by 2016

Parking is an everyday problem for most citizens. About 30% of all inner-city traffic results from drivers hunting for a parking spot. At the same time, however, most parking garages still face unused capacities even on busy days. “Most drivers have understandable issues with using parking garages”, explains Tobias Weiper, co-founder of evopark. “From difficult maneuvering over the tedious ticketing process to waiting in line at the pay stations looking for change - everybody faces different pain points when using off-street parking locations”.

Together with three former class-mates, Weiper founded evopark, a Cologne-based startup company that focuses on creating a seamless and digital parking experience. “Back in 2014, we started with a vision, how we imagined parking should look like in the future”, he goes on. When the four business students started their company, they quickly came across Scheidt & Bachmann, one of the world leaders in access control systems for car parks. The family business, founded already back in 1872, has constantly been focused on innovation to remain a market leader by developing new opportunities to suit the times - from railway technology in the nineteenth century and fuel pumps in the 1930s, to the more recent developments in the parking industry.

“Digitalization in parking has already been a trend over the last years. Internet-based business models are increasingly attractive because of their development potential. However, it is crucial to offer systems that are compatible with today’s infrastructure and create significant economic benefits for our clients in the parking industry” says Samuel Spaltner, D-A-CH Director at Scheidt & Bachmann. After a simple UBER-like registration on the app, evopark allows drivers to find off- street parking locations with available spots, to enter and exit car parks with the gates opening automatically through RFID technology (via a small chip that is sent to users free of charge) and to be invoiced conveniently once a month. At exclusive retail and restaurant partners, drivers can even receive a significant discount on their parking fees. No need to pull a ticket or to wait in line at pay stations. For car park operators, the evopark system allows better yield management, customer communication and, being seamlessly integrated in the Scheidt & Bachmann system platform “entervo”, to keep full control of all transactions.

Together with Scheidt & Bachmann, evopark set up a pilot market in the German city of Düsseldorf in June 2015, offering over 2,500 parking spots at seven locations from different car park operators such as Europe’s second largest, Q-Park. Within weeks, thousands of drivers signed up to the system, proving its technical and economic benefits. Currently, evopark has already signed more than 32 thousand parking spots in more than 20 German cities and focusses on the European roll-out for the next 12-16 months. “Our goal is to become Europe’s leading online platform for off-street parking, offering benefits for both drivers and operators while streamlining inner-city mobility” says Tobias Weiper. While the company already earns substantial revenues, it is still business angel financed and currently preparing its Series A financing round.

About evopark

evopark was founded in summer 2014 by a young and ambitions team and is already financed by wellknown business angels. With the vision to redefine the parking process and to solve an everyday-problem for most citizens, the team quickly developed a market-ready solution and launched a pilot market in Düsseldorf. The fast growing network of parking garages already offers twelve locations and will cover more than 20 cities by 2016. evopark closely works together with leading system manufacturers like Scheidt & Bachmann and large car park operators. More information on www.evopark.com

About Scheidt & Bachmann

Since its foundation in 1872, Scheidt & Bachmann has evolved from a mechanical engineering company into an international system provider. Today, the family business from Mönchengladbach is a world-wide leading supplier for systems in the area of parking facilities and leisure centers. Scheidt & Bachmann’s tradition of pioneer spirit as well as continuous improvement and innovation along with its highly qualified employees form the basis of its sustainable success.