A startup founder explained how VCs came knocking after he did a deal with Apple (AAPL)

http://ift.tt/2mb46oC

A startup founder explained how VCs came knocking after he did a deal with Apple (AAPL)

http://ift.tt/2kLUnnj

LAKRUWAN / Getty Images

Parkopedia, a London tech firm that helps people find parking spaces, immediately caught the eye of several investors last year after it signed a potentially-lucrative deal with Apple.

Eugene Tsyrklevich, the CEO and founder and 10-year-old Parkopedia, told Business Insider during an interview at his company's office near London Bridge that several larger firms have also tried to buy Parkopedia.

"The more successful you become, the less money you need, and the more opportunities you have," he said.

Tsyrklevich refused to disclose Parkopedia's revenue numbers or how much the deal with Apple was worth but he did say his company has grown "50-100% year-on-year for a number of years," adding that he now employs 60 people worldwide.

"We've had VCs and others reach out to us," Tsyrklevich explained, adding that the investors apparently say: "'Hey, I saw your new deal with Apple, let's talk.'"

Parkopedia receives something like half a billion data points every single day on movements of drivers around the cities around the globe, according to Tsyrklevich. "We crunch that in the cloud on AWS [Amazon Web Services] to figure out what does it mean for parking availability. Then you as a driver, you say this is where I’m going, and we say there is a space or there is not a space."

Last July, Parkopedia provided Apple with access to its database of more than 40 million parking services worldwide. Apple has embedded the data in the database into its Apple Maps platform, which is used by millions of people.

"Apple licenses our data globally," explained Tsyrklevich. "We have a service that works in 6,000 cities and 75 countries around the world. When you search for parking on Apple Maps, you will get back information for parking from Parkopedia. So where it is and how you can pay and height restrictions and so on. So that relationship is relatively new and the first release was just rolling out the basic [features]."

AppleTsyrklevich said that Apple could eventually use Parkopedia's technology to help Apple Maps users to reserve a parking space before they arrive, as opposed to just seeing whether it's free or not.

"Things can take a bit longer working with a larger corporate," said Tsyrklevich. "So there is no set date as to when it can go live."

Tsyrklevich added: "Whenever you work with Apple, everything comes down to UX, and if anything needs to change on the UX side then that’s it, that’s going to take a long time.

"And they are internally as intense about design as they are on the outside. They’re very, very conscious of it. They really think it through. So I don't think there’s a fixed deadline. And the other thing to understand is that they don’t tell us anything anyway. They did not tell us when our own feature was going launch."

Apple did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

NOW WATCH: This college student racked up $300,000 worth of frequent flyer miles by legally hacking United Airlines

See Also:

• We tried MealPal, the subscription service that offers daily lunches for under $6
• Everything we know about the next iPhone — including a possible $1,000 price tag
• Here’s how much the biggest tech companies grew in terms of revenue last quarter

Business

via Business Insider http://ift.tt/eKERsB

February 18, 2017 at 06:12PM