Great leap forward for Frogparking
A group of high-profile Kiwi investors have made a multi-million investment in Kiwi-based parking systems company Frogparking.
The group include former Federated Farmers president and ex-fonterra director Malcolm Bailey, and former boss of the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund, Franceska Banga.
Bailey has joined Frogparking’s board as chairman after the group injected an undisclosed amount equating to a 25 per cent stake.
Over seven years, Frogparking has been quietly building up its customer base, and its revenue now exceeds $10 million. Its five-year target: $50m.
The investment will allow Frogparking to pump more money into R&D and hire staff in the US and Australia.
Managing director of Frogparking Shareena Sandbrook said the company’s customer base included US mall developer company Irvine Company, the Dubai Regional Transport Authority, and New Zealand’s three major international airports.
With a staff of 27 in Palmerston North, the company develops parking solutions which include solar powered sensors, Bluetooth and the cloud. Its system detects vacant spaces, guides drivers to their parks, helps them pay, and feeds useful data back to the carpark’s owners.
Data collection was a big point of difference for Frogparking, allowing malls to learn more about their customers.
Frogparking was co-founded by Sandbrook and her father Don, after he sold an aircraft tracking business, Spidertracks.
With the technology team still in place, ‘‘we saw an opportunity in the market to deliver smart technology for this space’’.
Parking was worth more than $100 billion globally.
‘‘The demand is huge. Vehicle numbers are expected to double in the next three years and the population’s growing so parking is a huge growth industry.’’
They chose the name Frogparking simply because it was fun ‘‘and memorable’’.
Bailey said that from an investor perspective, Frogparking had ‘‘enormous capacity’’ and was growing rapidly.