Who among the residents of central Tel Aviv is unfamiliar with the frustrating situation of driving home and circling around for a long time near the sidewalks full of cars? In fact, the average time today to search for parking in Tel Aviv is over half an hour, and this presents a real nuisance for residents who love the city and want to live there. Those who recognized the growing frustration are Roy Yotvat, Ofek Zucker and Tamir Tziprot, founders of the Pumba application that locates vacant parking spaces in central Tel Aviv, based on more than 1,000 parking sensors that residents have installed on their balconies and windows.
It all started with a Bachelor's degree in entrepreneurship at Reichman University. "In our third year of studies, Ofek and I were asked to create a real startup. We came up with ideas and rejected them after quick tests. Then we had the winning idea, to build an application that would help drivers in the centers of major cities to find parking on the street," relates Yotvat. "The idea took off very quickly. We obtained funding and investors and started development. Today the service is active in central Tel Aviv and the Old North, and we already have hundreds of paying subscribers and thousands of active users per month, who are successfully finding street parking."
How does the app work?
"We create collaborations with local drivers, who suffer terribly from the parking crisis, and offer them to install a parking sensor that we developed on their balcony. The sensor takes pictures of street parking and runs an algorithm that we developed for monitoring the parking on the street based on computerized vision, a combination that allows the application to display the available parking spots in real time and suggest them to drivers looking for parking. In exchange, they receive a free subscription to the app. In this way we manage to cover thousands of parking spots on the street 24/7. The app allows any driver arriving in central Tel Aviv to immediately see all the available parking spaces around them on a map and navigate to the parking. While driving, we update them if the parking spot is still available or if it has been taken."
In your opinion, what is the biggest added value of the app?
"At the end of the day, we offer people certainty. The frustration of drivers stems from uncertainty, because they have no idea where to go to find parking, or even if there is any parking available near their home. We actually give them the ability to make decisions under conditions of certainty and in the best case scenario, they also find parking. Our success rate is 1 in 3, which means that the driver will find a parking spot one out of every three attempts. Our service can be used for a monthly fee of NIS 29.90 or a one-time payment of NIS 9.90, which is significantly cheaper than any other solution in the city. Currently, we're in the stages of proving the business feasibility and our aim in the future is to export the app to major city centers in Europe and the US. For this purpose we are now raising $1.5 million, and part of the amount has already been secured by the company's existing investors."
Do you also cooperate with municipalities?
"Of course. In addition to the service of finding street parking offered to private drivers (B2C), we also offer services to municipalities. The Tel Aviv Municipality is currently one of our paying customers, using data that helps them measure the impact of their parking policy changes on supply and demand in the area. In addition, we received funding from the Innovation Authority for a pilot in collaboration with the Tel Aviv Municipality, to monitor and optimize loading and unloading zones throughout the city. Since our recent exposure, we have received inquiries from other municipalities in Israel and abroad to explore collaborations."
In collaboration with Pumba
