The Munich-based mobility startup Altermobili aims to reduce traffic searching for parking spaces. The founders aren't alone in the market with this idea. However, thanks to their battery-powered 'plug & play' hardware and app, the startup knows that a parking space will become available before the car can leave the space. Crowdfunding campaign The startup has already successfully completed a round of funding, as well as pre-seed financing. Co-founder Ophélie Jaschke answered our 7 questions.
1. Who are you and what do you do?
We are Altermobili, a smart mobility startup from Munich, which was founded earlier this year. Our goal is to become a leading company in sustainable mobility. Our focus is to reduce parking search traffic by 30 percent. At the same time, we want to halve the number of trips where it's unlikely to find a parking space.
To achieve this, we connect vehicles to form a 'Connected Cars Community'. We use our small chip, 'Almo,' for this. The hardware is installed in the car and connects to our smartphone app via Bluetooth. When an app user leaves their car, we detect it and share the available parking space with all other Almo users. Our solution is so smart that it even displays the parking process 60 seconds in advance. This way, only our users know when another user is leaving a parking space.
Altermobili founder: Startup experience times three
Our founding team consists of Michael Jaschke, serial IT entrepreneur, László Török, a startup-experienced CTO, and me, Ophélie Jaschke, a US attorney. My husband, Michael, has built successful companies in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data in the US and Europe, among others. László officially joined the founding team this month. He brings with him many years of experience in software development in large companies and startups. And I have advised startups in the US on US immigration law for 15 years.
2. But that's been around for a long time!
Many startups have to listen to this objection—including in the mobility sector. Because in times of climate change and diesel bans, everyone wants to find a solution!
However, what we do—and especially how we do it—is unique. Almo detects and displays parking spaces before they become available. This creates what we call an 'unfair advantage,' since only our users know where a parking space will become available in the next 60 seconds.
The mix makes the success
3. What are the three main ingredients for your recipe for success?
Clear answer — a mix of grit, experience and innovation!
- Grit: This term, coined by US psychologist Angela Duckworth, is a combination of passion and tenacity. We have it!
- Experience: All Altermobili team members have worked for startups and gained fundamental experience in building companies.
- Innovation: We love innovation and believe that technology can significantly improve life. We invest a significant portion of our time in this pursuit.
4. Let’s get down to business: How is business going?
Our development curve is astonishingly steep. We've achieved many milestones in a very short time, and we haven't even had time to open a bottle of champagne! We founded the company in January, closed our pre-seed funding in May, launched in June, entered into a data partnership with Share Now in July, and in August, we recruited László and Daniela (our experienced Marketing Director) to our team. In September, we'll integrate Share Now and then show our users thousands of available parking spaces every day. It's amazing!
Back to the roots
5. What does Munich mean to you?
After the 17 years that Michael and I spent in the USA, Munich is home again. We absolutely love living and working here. László also worked in London for three years before returning to Munich. Daniela left Mexico to be closer to her family.
Munich is a very active startup scene and offers our company numerous opportunities to interact and collaborate with other startups. The city is also home to many major automotive and car-sharing companies with which we can collaborate.
6. Will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we see you soon at Epic Fail Night?
What a question, unicorn of course! Startups shouldn't just work for 'world peace,' they should also make money. For us, however, another goal is crucial: We want to reduce parking search traffic here and in many other European cities by 30 percent with our solution. That's our company's mission.
7. Hiking or beer garden?
Hard to say, since Munich is great for both! But we asked: Javi and László vote for beer gardens, Daniela, Sophia, Michael, and I are for hiking: So it's four to two for hiking!
