So much attention has been paid to improving urban mobility, starting with ride-sharing, shared scooters, bicycle lines but not much has been paid to improving the accessibility and availability of parking. Metropolis is on a mission to change that. It’s a sophisticated parking management system, powered by computer vision, that leverages technology to improve the experience of parking for both consumers and parking garage operators. With a single app, consumers can find convenient parking options and pay without having to worry about availability, payments, tips, and the like. For operators, in addition to cost savings, they are finally able to gain valuable data on capacity, utilization, and customer behavior while having their locations staffed by dedicated teams from Metropolis. The company plans to expand nationwide this year with over 600 locations being serviced through the platform across cities like Nashville, New York, SF, and Seattle.
LA TechWatch caught up with CEO, Cofounder, and repeat founder Alex Israel (ParkMe acquire by Inrix) to learn more about the state of the parking industry, the company’s expansion plans, latest round of funding, and much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
We raised $41M in an oversubscribed Series A funding. With this new round, Metropolis has now raised more than $60M in total capital. 3L Capital led the round, joined by Starwood Capital, 01 Advisors (Dick Costolo and Adam Bain), Dragoneer, Slow Ventures, Zigg Capital, DivcoWest, RXR (Scott Rechler), Dan Doctoroff, Baron Davis, Halogen Ventures (Jesse Draper), and Gideon Hixon.
Tell us about your product or service.
Metropolis brings the antiquated and inefficient parking experience into the 21st century. Through a vertically-integrated parking system that’s powered by AI, Metropolis is infusing the tech that consumers expect in their daily lives into the archaic parking industry. Metropolis’ computer vision technology removes all barriers between drivers, parking operators, and asset owners to create a remarkable, consumer-friendly parking experience. No one enjoys parking, and Metropolis is here to change that.
What inspired the start of Metropolis?
We started Metropolis to make cities more efficient and support the future of urban transportation.
Parking represents the last bastion of non-institutionalized, underdeveloped, underutilized, and under-monetized real estate in the US. No matter the city, on-street parking is nearly impossible, forcing drivers to circle the block aimlessly. If you’re parking in a lot, the process can be ambiguous and misleading, making payment overly complex and frustrating.
Despite parking being a crucial building block to urban mobility, and millions of dollars being poured into transportation solutions over the past decade, parking has remained stagnant. Congestion and traffic issues continue to weigh heavily on people’s daily lives, while staggering amounts of urban real estate in major metropolitan areas are dedicated to wholly inefficient parking garages. We looked at this and knew we could do better.
How is it different?
Metropolis owns the entire consumer experience, it’s an end-to-end solution for both consumers and asset owners.
When guests arrive at a Metropolis they’re met with an intuitive user experience.
We’ve developed an artificial intelligence platform, so that you — the consumer — can finally have a checkout-free parking experience. You drive in, you drive out — that’s it. No tickets, no cash, no fumbling with apps, no driving around aimlessly. Sign up once and then never struggle to pay again — existing members are automatically charged, while new guests can opt to sign up or pay via the app with no surprise fees or validation tickets. Metropolis not only lets you search and pay for guaranteed parking easily via mobile, but it also operates, maintains, and staffs its locations to ensure your parking experience is always seamless and consistent.
For property owners, parking assets often plague real estate portfolios with inefficiency, ineptitude, cash, complacency, and theft. Metropolis operates lots efficiently, reducing expenses, driving significant incremental net operating income, and creates an enjoyable, fully-branded experience for customers — while introducing much-needed technology and data to garages for the first time. Because parking is still one of the few real estate holdings untouched by innovation, Metropolis is able to turn these properties into far more valuable assets.
What market are you targeting and how big is it?
We’re targeting drivers and asset owners everywhere across the US who need a parking solution. We will use this new capital to scale our platform across the US into 600 locations before the end of the year including Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Nashville, and Detroit.
What’s your business model?
Metropolis utilizes computer vision technology to align with asset owners to grossly reduce operating costs and drive incremental revenue through partnerships with the largest, global mobility companies – and therefore significantly change the income profiles of real estate. Through direct ownership and key partnerships with parking structures and spaces, Metropolis is working to redefine and repurpose how cities conceptualize, operate, and monetize parking assets across the U.S.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business?
At first, the pandemic brought most company operations to a standstill, as to be expected given the uncertainty across almost every industry. Our team worked day and night to aggressively control costs and adjust our go-to-market strategy. In the eyes of asset owners, Metropolis remained an opportune investment: reduced costs and increased tenant satisfaction with a 21st-century experience to drive new sources of revenue. This resulted in a massive pipeline of contracted opportunities that have led up to this moment and will deploy this year.
What was the funding process like?
The pandemic has created a very unique funding experience and environment, especially working more closely with our investors via Zoom, rather than in-person. So much of fundraising is relationship building, so it’s been interesting to have the whole process go virtual.
The backing of more than $40M, by many of the largest global real estate firms, is an indication of the opportunity for Metropolis’ innovative model, and the overall strength of the business. We are confident in our path forward and are eager to offer even more customers access to a seamless parking experience from beginning to end.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Investors and VCs are very keyed into pattern recognition and continuously identifying budding investment categories, so it can be challenging to immediately grab their attention with a category that is maybe less attractive such as parking. However, once we presented the opportunity and shared Metropolis’ overall mission of making cities more liveable through our technology, we were able to make traction.
Investors and VCs are very keyed into pattern recognition and continuously identifying budding investment categories, so it can be challenging to immediately grab their attention with a category that is maybe less attractive such as parking. However, once we presented the opportunity and shared Metropolis’ overall mission of making cities more liveable through our technology, we were able to make traction.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Over the past few years, our team has worked to cultivate close relationships with institutional real estate owners across the US in order to deploy Metropolis’ computer vision solution at scale. Investors saw this massive opportunity to grow the business to 600 locations by the end of this year, and believed in our mission of reimagining and reinvigorating parking.
Additionally, investors saw our expertise in the mobility space and track record of developing innovative parking platforms.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
As mentioned, we plan to scale our platform across the US into 600 locations before the end of the year. In addition to large-scale expansion, Metropolis has an upcoming announcement with a notable tech partner and we look forward to sharing more details in the coming weeks.
What advice can you offer companies in Los Angeles that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
It is certainly harder to raise capital in Los Angeles compared to San Francisco, but we recommend being tenacious and reaching out to VCs and prospective investors as they want to hear from you and hear about your ideas. I would also recommend refocusing on your core product and identifying what your specific value add is today, so you can better focus on growing and scaling your business.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
In the near term, our team is focused on our current expansion plans across the U.S. and upcoming partnerships that will make our product and experience accessible to even more consumers.
Metropolis is bringing technology to parking, allowing cities to use existing resources smarter, reduce emissions from cars circling the block, and eliminate the anxiety of never knowing where parking will be available. With Metropolis, cities can begin to solve a number of different issues including more easily integrated micro-mobility options, giving rideshare drivers access to badly needed amenities (e.g. bathrooms, rest areas, places to pray), and more.
What is your favorite restaurant in LA?
The Brentwood Restaurant and Lounge, which unfortunately closed in 2020, but hosted many occasions and company milestones for our team over the past few years.
