Driving to and from work just got a little bit easier

A Sydney-based startup is hoping to alleviate parking congestion in Australia’s major cities by making it easier for people to find and book car spaces online.

Divvy hopes to end up just as popular as other collaborative consumption startups like Airbnb and Uber.

Founder Nick Austen told StartupSmart Divvy was born from the frustration of finding it difficult to find a car park in the city every day for work.

“I guess the frustration was that we should be using those [spaces] more effectively rather than having a whole lot of cars driving around the street looking for a park and causing congestion,” he says.

Austin started researching for a way to solve this issue, and found 10% of parking bays in commercial CBD buildings sit empty every day. The startup has since closed out a $350,000 seed round earlier this year.

Austen says while the startup is a website for the moment as the service is currently based around monthly bookings, he hopes to launch an app in the not-so-distant future.

“We are looking to do some other things around parking that require more location-based on-the-go type bookings,” he says. “There’s a huge opportunity there.”

The major hurdle for the startup has been building up its user-base. With a series A round set to close in the next week or two, Austen says the next stage will see him focusing on increasing Divvy’s technology team and growing existing partnerships with leading property companies.

“The majority of our business is Sydney-focused at the moment. However, all Australian cities have an issue with parking and an effective use of space,” he says.

“Something like this in Brisbane would be really welcome – there’s a lot of commuters up there frustrated with the current parking situation that would love to go with more affordable parking.

“And for people living in the area I’m sure they’d love to tap into an additional income stream and be part of the solution.”

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