Openspot Technologies
Openspot Technologies is a Software Platform which manages and optimizes parking operations using data. Historically, data points in a parking lot such as Occupancy, Revenue, and Violations have not been connected to one another. Openspot’s online platform connects all these data points together and shows parking operators and municipalities a simple and aggregated view of how everything works together in real-time in their lot. This leads to smarter and more strategic decision-making around pricing and violations enforcement, which boosts revenues for parking lots by up to 30%. Parking is a $250 billion industry that still operates in a fairly archaic fashion, so the opportunity to disrupt is ripe.
Openspot is currently working with the City of Surrey. The company was part of the Telus Technology Accelerator and has signed a Reseller Agreement with Telus’ IOT division. The company was also named one of the Top 3 Startups in British Columbia in 2019 by the BC Technology Impact Awards.
Traction
Openspot Technologies has experienced a very strong uptake in usership. Their platform is currently deployed in the City of Surrey. The Openspot team is also in discussions with over 23 additional clients, including airports, universities, hospitals, and commercial lots, to implement their services.
The Openspot Technologies data infrastructure is ready for the future, whether that be autonomous vehicles looking for data on available parking spots, or a self-driving car looking to transfer cryptocurrency to a parking spot to pay for parking.
Team
Thamer Matar – CEO and Co-founder. Thamer is a Systems Engineer from Simon Fraser University. A former engineer at Nokia, Thamer leads growth and business development at Openspot Technologies, leveraging his vast network with municipal governments in the process. He is a much sought after speaker within the Smart Cities vertical. He has spoken on Smart Cities and the future of parking and mobility at the Smart Cities Connect Expo and Conference (Denver, Colorado), Cambridge House Expo (Vancouver), and the Smart Cities Expo (Doha, Qatar).
Samarth Chandola – Director and Co-founder. Sam is a serial entrepreneur who thrives at the intersection of entrepreneurial spirit and creative passion. Formerly, he was the founder of V2 Games, a Vancouver-based gaming studio that launched the world’s first licensed Pac-Man mobile puzzle game, and scaled the company to over 20 million users, eventually exiting to Victory Square Technologies Inc. Sam is a recipient of the 2014 BC Business Top 30 under 30 award, the RBC Top 75 Canadian Immigrant award, and the 2017 TMX Canada’s Next 150 award. He routinely talks about entrepreneurship at events and universities such as Pecha Kucha Nights, the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and the Center for Digital Media.
Funding
Up to this point Openspot Technologies have raised $400,000 from family and friends and $300,000 through non-dilutive government funding.
They are looking to secure a further $1,000,000, of which $350,000 has already been secured.
These funds will be used to scale up B2B and B2G sales operations across North America. At present, Openspot’s biggest challenge is to meet their customers’ demands. They hope to overcome this challenge by hiring more sales and account executives.
Openspot are also currently expanding their software development team by hiring a backend developer and full stack developer. These efforts will ensure their product can deliver for their customers and scale up for additional customers.
Revenue Model
Openspot operates a SaaS-based model. Their competitive advantage is that they offer actionable insights and are able to deploy a fully automated parking management system.
Details
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