Divvy Parking chief executive Nick Austin is in Singapore this week pitching to investors, industry leaders, global tech companies and governments after being chosen at the recent Echelon Ignite Australia conference as one of the top 50 start-ups in South-East Asia.
“We are pitching to a number of potential investors and strategic partners. A number of meetings include discussions for funding opportunities with multi-national technology companies and major telcos,” Austin told StartupSmart.
The Divvy Parking software enables easy and safe peer-to-peer booking of long-term parking. While finding a parking spot isn’t a new problem, it’s a promising global innovation area as population growth, urbanisation and high density living are set to continue.
“At the core we offer a highly disruptive business model that has the ability to scale rapidly throughout Australia and the globe. I believe we stood out because we have validated the market, provide an innovative solution, we have an awesome venture technology partner in Blue Chilli (a venture technology company), and have the ability to scale rapidly,” Austin says.
Austin is aiming to raise $550,000 in seed funding to enable the company to launch its software platform and mobile app in July, along with a marketing strategy. A national rollout will follow.
The marketing strategy will be important as Divvy Parking is a software that relies on peer-power. So the more users they can sign up the better.
“Our core goal is to help resolve this parking mess by empowering the community with the right set of tools,” says Austin.
The broad scope of the audience at Echelon Singapore offers a variety of strategic possibilities for start-ups.
Austin has so far held meetings with people from a variety of Asian countries, Russia and Israel.
Rose is the current head of growth at Rampersand Ventures. She was formerly a reporter at StartupSmart.
