EasyPark’s smartphone app provides millions of registered users with the quickest and most efficient solution to find, remotely manage and pay for parking. With over 220 employees worldwide, the company has unrivalled coverage of millions of on-street parking spaces across 700 cities in 11 European countries, complimented by over 100 commercial off-street parking contracts. EasyPark also offers digital services that enable cities to improve traffic-flow and reduce urban congestion, while maximising occupancy rates for private parking operators. These services work in harmony to create more sustainable, cost efficient and ultimately smarter cities.
EasyPark has a proven track record of continuous innovation. Earlier this year, the company launched its proprietary Parking Dashboard, with real-time parking data management and analytics tools. In 2017, the company also announced its brand-new Find & Pay service, which guides users to their destination along a route with the highest probability of available parking spaces.
Due to its broad European service coverage and industry thought leader position, leading car manufacturers have already shown great interest to partner with EasyPark. Consequently, the company has partnered with Volvo to integrate its service seamlessly in to the head-unit of Volvo vehicles. It also supplies major free-floating car sharing providers in the Nordics and Germany with fully automated parking services, such as DriveNow and Car2Go, so users simply have to park the car to complete their journey without handling any part of the parking transaction. This unique solution is an important step forward for the future of self-driving cars.
Johan Birgersson, CEO of EasyPark Group, said:
“The parking marketplace is currently going through a rapid transformation. As an industry thought leader, EasyPark has been instrumental in this development by building strong value-adding digital services for cities, motorists and parking operators, forming key partnerships and implementing strategic initiatives that have today put us in a market leading position in Europe. We are grateful for the commitment and support we have received from Verdane in recent years, but we also have really big tasks ahead so we are looking forward to doubling down on service development and international expansion with additional support from the strong team at Vitruvian Partners.”
Jussi Wuoristo, Partner at Vitruvian Partners, added:
“EasyPark creates tremendous value for municipalities, consumers, businesses and private parking operators across Europe. EasyPark allows forward-looking municipalities to make smart cities a reality and delivers a better quality of life by improving accessibility, lowering the cost of parking, easing enforcement and reducing congestion. We are delighted and excited to partner with EasyPark’s management and Verdane to help accelerate the company’s international expansion and service innovation for the benefit of cities and their citizens.”
Henrik Aspén, Partner at Verdane Capital Advisors, commented:
“EasyPark is a great example of how digitalisation and new technology make urban life easier and greener, and we are proud to have been part of the internationalisation and strong development of the business since our original investment in 2012. EasyPark has a unique service offering, a leading European market position, and an excellent management team. Combined with Vitruvian Partners’ expertise with international, high-growth consumer technology companies, we are convinced this is only the beginning of EasyPark’s journey.”
The transaction is subject to approval from competition authorities. The parties have agreed to not disclose financial details of the transaction.
For further information, please contact:
Matthew Tooth, for EasyPark: matthew.tooth@easyparkgroup.com or +46 733 133 330
Matthew Smallwood, for Vitruvian: matthew.smallwood@instinctif.com or +442074 572 020
Henrik Aspén, for Verdane: henrik@verdanecapital.com or +46 703 650 400
About EasyPark Group:
Since 2001, our award-winning smart services have been helping drivers to find and pay for parking in 700 cities across 11 countries. But what we do doesn’t stop there. On a larger scale, our technology helps businesses, operators, and cities with parking administration, planning and management. What we actually do is make urban life easier – one parking spot at a time. Visit www.easyparkgroup.com to learn more!
About Vitruvian Partners:
Vitruvian is an independent European private equity firm which specializes in ‘dynamic situations’ – investments in companies undergoing growth and change typically driven by technology. Vitruvian helps portfolio companies scale their operations by providing an operational support system and assistance with strategic initiatives including acquisitions. Notable investments to date include global market leaders in their field such as Just Eat, FarFetch, Skyscanner, EasyPark, Snow Software, CRF Health, Trustpilot, Voxbone, Callcredit, Ebury and others. Vitruvian has a strong presence in the Nordic region with an established office in Stockholm and eight current investments across the region: Accountor, Benify, CRF Health, EasyPark, Just Eat, Snow Software, Trustpilot and Unifaun.
The €2.4bn Vitruvian Investment Partnership III (“VIP III”) is among the largest pools of capital in Europe supporting innovative and higher growth companies. Vitruvian has backed 30 companies in its first two funds and has assets under management of approximately €5 billion. Vitruvian has offices in London, Munich, Stockholm, Luxembourg and San Francisco. More information can be found at: www.vitruvianpartners.com
About Verdane Capital:
Verdane funds provide flexible growth capital to fast growing software, consumer internet, energy or high-technology industry businesses. The funds are distinctive in that they can invest either in a single company, or in portfolios of companies. Verdane funds have €900m under management and have invested in over 300 holdings over the past 14 years. Verdane Capital Advisors has 29 employees working out of offices in Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo and Stockholm. More information can be found at: www.verdanecapital.com
