Nominee Name: CityLIGHTS Award: SpotHero
Award category:CityLIGHTS - for companies with $25MM+ in revenue
About the nominee:SpotHero is the digital parking leader and the largest platform to buy and sell parking in North America. As the #1 downloaded parking reservation app, SpotHero provides easy parking for all. Our mobile apps and website are designed to help drivers find, book and access off-street parking in more than 8,000 locations in over 300 major North American cities, bringing price transparency, convenience, and safety to drivers.
SpotHero’s mission began with just 50 spots in Chicago, which consisted of privately-owned parking spots. However, once its co-founders landed a partnership with a parking garage, which instantly added 1,000 parking spots, SpotHero’s business model started to evolve to what it is today. The next three years were spent developing the Chicago market penetration to make sure it was done correctly before expanding into new cities. SpotHero began recruiting parking operators by offering new services like monthly parking packages and partnering with different Chicago-based events to become official parking sponsors.
SpotHero later expanded into cities like Washington DC, Baltimore, and New York City. It grew to become the leading player nationwide as it grew into new markets, and ultimately acquired our largest competitor, Parking Panda. This helped the company expand into Canada and incorporate legacy partnerships with major sports teams. SpotHero has also entered into partnerships with leading mobility companies such as Waze, Moovit, Google Assistant, Hertz and Apple Maps.
In August 2019, SpotHero closed a $50 million Series D led by Macquarie Capital, the largest global infrastructure asset manager and financier, bringing SpotHero’s total funding to $118 million. With Macquarie leading the round, the investment provided strong validation for the pressing need to digitize urban parking infrastructure.
In 2022, SpotHero exceeded $1 billion in parking reservations, solidifying the company’s reputation as the most reliable and convenient option for drivers across the industry. SpotHero is recognized by TIME Magazine as one of 50 Genius Companies “inventing the future” and is the clear market leader.
Why they should win:SpotHero deserves to win the CityLIGHTS award because it has continuously transformed a formerly low-tech industry into a digital marketplace, equipping drivers with an easy-to-use platform that takes the hassle out of parking and enables drivers to spend more time with people and moments that matter more. With SpotHero’s continuous innovation in the parking industry, it has shown that such digital transformation serves the interests of drivers and parking operators, allowing the industry to re-envision mobility while making an environmental impact as it helps reduce congestion by helping drivers more efficiently get to their destinations.