Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem do you solve?
Florian Stein, Avantpark: We offer parking operators a complete digital solution for parking space management – from controlling maximum parking duration and parking permits to parking space management and e-charging stations with integrated control functions. We rely on GDPR-compliant license plate recognition technology that enables completely barrier-free and paperless parking.
Most companies, regardless of industry, own a parking lot, but parking space management is not their core business. Yet managing parking lots costs time, money, and effort. In fact, the parking lot is often a company’s first and last touchpoint with its customers and has a significant impact on the entire customer journey and customer satisfaction. We want to reduce this effort for parking operators and simultaneously create a positive parking experience for their customers. With us, parking operators get everything from one source: from planning through hardware and installation to commissioning and ongoing service.
Our individual services are flexibly combinable and include access to our Avantpark customer portal as well as automated tracking of parking violations. In the customer portal, parking permits can be managed and anonymized parking data can be viewed. This can help identify potential opportunities and weaknesses and adjust strategies accordingly.
Munich Startup: But that’s been around for ages!
Florian Stein: You always have to put everything in the context of the local market. Professional parking space management using license plate recognition is actually still quite new in Germany, unlike in other countries. Of course, there are already solutions for controlling and managing parking lots: barrier-ticket systems or manual control with parking discs or parking tickets. But these still have many disadvantages.
Barrier systems are costly and prone to damage. The customer journey is far from optimal: barriers often result in congestion and queues. Pulling out and keeping a parking ticket comes with a certain level of stress.
“Thanks to automation, 24/7 monitoring is enabled”
Manual control, on the other hand, costs many resources and is incomplete. In rare cases can a parking lot be monitored 24/7, in any weather. This means that parking violations go unpunished and, for paid parking lots, revenue is lost.
With our digital parking system, we counteract all these disadvantages. Thanks to automation, 24/7 monitoring is enabled and the burden is taken off parking operators. However, our customers retain control over what happens and the regulations in their parking lot. With our customer portal, they also have a better overview. Since the tracking of parking violations is handled in our name, our customers’ brands remain protected.
Munich Startup: What is your founding story?
Florian Stein: Avantpark was founded in 2020 as a spin-off from the British parent company Parkingeye Ltd. Parkingeye is already the market leader for digital parking space management in the UK and has over 18 years of experience managing more than 3,500 parking lots. The potential of this solution for the German market was recognized and Parking Solutions Deutschland GmbH was founded, which operates under the brand name Avantpark.
Of course, we benefit from the experience of our parent company and can draw on it heavily, especially in development. In Germany, however, we are still a young company that is growing and developing steadily.
Challenge: unfamiliarity of license plate recognition in Germany
Munich Startup: What have been your greatest challenges so far?
Florian Stein: Clearly, the unfamiliarity of license plate recognition in Germany. We all know it: people are skeptical of everything new and unknown. “I already have a barrier system. That works fine” is something we hear often. But as they say: just because something works doesn’t mean it can’t be improved.
That’s exactly where we come in. We educate our customers and potential interested parties about how our solution works and its benefits. Together, we identify what problems they face on their parking lots, understand the requirements, and develop a customized solution. Once the optimization potential is recognized, the response suddenly becomes “Ah yes, we’ll do that!” We’re happy to do the educational work in the first step.
Munich Startup: Where do you want to stand in one year, and in five years?
Florian Stein: In 2023, two topics are at the top of our agenda. On one hand, our newest product “ParkEV“, e-charging stations with integrated control functions, which are unique on the German market. With this, we were able to expand our customer offering with something that is currently one of the most exciting and important topics in the mobility industry.
On the other hand, we are focusing on further, sustainable growth this year. Sustainable because we don’t just want to win new customers. We also want our team to grow at the same time. Only this way can we meet our high service standards.
In 5 years, we want to be Germany’s leading provider of digital parking space management via license plate recognition. Since we are already present in Denmark and Austria, we also want the Avantpark brand to become the go-to partner for parking operators in the parking industry internationally. In this way, we want to help bring the world of parking into a digital future.
On the way to becoming a shooting star?
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Florian Stein: Currently, with Unterföhring, we’re actually in a Munich neighboring municipality. But we don’t see that as a disadvantage at all, quite the opposite. We were able to expand and have everything under one roof. That would have been difficult in the city center. At the beginning of Avantpark, we were in a co-working space right at Siegestor, where we also had contact with other startups. So perhaps we can say something about it.
Looking at the figures of newly founded startups in Munich, you can see that the location is becoming increasingly popular. There are good reasons for this: a whole ecosystem of investors, funding programs, and partners for startups has developed here. The pool of talent is also huge. We really like that and we’re delighted by every new application.
Munich Startup: Hidden champion or shooting star?
Florian Stein: Currently a hidden champion on the way to becoming a shooting star. In Germany, we and the topic of license plate recognition are still relatively new, as mentioned. In fact, there’s much more behind the parking industry in general than most people suspect.
Female Founders
