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Driving on the busy street of Lagos and seeing the horrible site visitors attributable to automobiles that have been parked by the roadside by individuals who have been attending a marriage occasion. Philip Ogunnaike thought ‘What if’ these automobiles might get a handy and protected place to park for N300 round their desired places.
Ogunnaike, with over 10 years of expertise in Enterprise Improvement, Engineering and Operations Administration, noticed this drawback of circling endlessly in quest of a parking spot contributing to site visitors and environmental woes and constructed the Parkwell platform.
Parkwell referred to as the ‘Airbnb for parking’ is reworking the mobility house with know-how and altering the best way drivers entry parking areas, making it simpler and extra handy than ever earlier than.
He stated “Our app permits customers to effortlessly find, reserve, and pay for parking areas from the consolation of their houses or whereas on the go. With only a few faucets on their smartphones, customers can navigate the labyrinth of city streets to safe a parking spot forward of time, saving them treasured time and vitality.”
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“By permitting customers to order and pay digitally, the app reduces the necessity for bodily money transactions, contributing to a extra seamless and safe parking expertise,” he stated.
When requested how the Parkwell app works, Ogunnaike stated it really works as an e-hailing platform and Airbnb. The cell app interface shows a map of your present space and obtainable parking spots. It additionally means that you can guide spots forward of time. Like Airbnb, you see footage of the automobile park, charges charged and evaluations.
“Critiques are essential to the platform due to its Airbnb component. Which means that folks with parking areas of their houses or places of work could make some cash by registering it as a parking spot on Parkwell.”
“Like e-hailing options, Parkwell has two platforms, one for customers in search of parking spots and one other for individuals who wish to register their parking areas on the platform,” he stated.
In line with him, the platform for registering an area is named the Parkwell Associate. To be a Parkwell companion, you’re taking an image of the parking house you wish to register, enter the deal with and lock it in with the platform’s GPS.
After this, Parkwell visits the house to confirm that the one that registered the place owns it and that it meets Parkwell’s safety requirements.
“The certification course of is an important facet of Parkwell’s service. Every parking facility undergoes a rigorous analysis to make sure it meets the very best high quality requirements. This contains components similar to safety, cleanliness, accessibility, and customer support. By upholding these requirements,” he stated.
On how the corporate makes cash, he stated “Parkwell makes cash by charging a fee of as much as 30 p.c per parking. We attain an settlement with parking facility homeowners concerning the share that shall be charged on every car parked by the platform.”
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Ogunnaike who’s the CEO stated that due to the character of our service “We’re eager on security, that’s the reason we partnered with Curacel Nigerian-based insurance coverage startup that gives per-minute complete insurance coverage for customers. It additionally has an identification verification system that ensures a car can solely be picked up by whoever parked it.”
Parkwell has additionally partnered with Interswitch to offer seamless fee choices and Shuttlers to drive the park-and-shuttle initiative.
“All for the aim of decreasing the variety of automobiles on our roads, automobile generated emissions and the carbon footprint to the barest potential minimal,” he stated.
Responding on how the corporate has grown over time. He stated, “We’re only a yr and our employees base has grown to eight individuals that oversee the enterprise operation.”
“Up to now our consumer base is over 5,000 and we now have registered 80 parking tons with over 2,000 parking areas in Lagos, Nigeria and Dakar, Senegal the place options like Parkwell aren’t quite common,” he stated.
Nevertheless, the corporate’s rivals are few due to the type of service it affords, and never many drivers are conscious of its operations.
Ogunnaike stated, “Getting drivers to make use of and perceive the method of our resolution in Africa is one thing that has been a giant problem for the startup.”
“At present, we function in Lagos, USA, and Senegal and we’re within the remaining phases of increasing to Cameroun and Kenya,” he stated.
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As a part of its development technique, Parkwell is presently within the strategy of securing pre-seed funding to increase its presence into extra African nations and pursue numerous growth-oriented initiatives.
“This effort comes after Parkwell efficiently accomplished the 2023 Startupbootcamp AfriTech accelerator program, which offered monetary assist for its endeavors,” the CEO stated.
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