”Parking is hassle-free and fun. I can’t wait to park my car!” 

…said no one ever.

At least not in the summer of 2011 when we first began to give some serious thought to the idea of flipping the narrative on parking. Does parking really need to cause stress? Could it actually be easy, even enjoyable? Were the problems related to parking a bit like puzzle pieces – just waiting to be solved by logic?

One thing was sure – there was a clear mismatch between how drivers wanted to move from one place to another and what it actually took to get where they wanted. While cars and other motor vehicles had given people freedom to travel where they wanted, when they wanted, parking still took a large portion of the time gained by driving. Just think about how many times you have been late to your destination when struggling to find available parking spots.

One day in that summer 2011 we were walking on the streets of Helsinki and then it really hit us – why are there so many parking lots that sit empty around the clock while at the same time people have trouble finding vacant spots close to their destination?

Parking companies and municipalities are not the bad guys either. They want a functioning city as much as the residents do. So what if, instead of relying on the income from car park fines (and causing even more headache to the drivers), they could increase their revenue through an effective parking system?

The only reasonable answer to the issues we had identified was to create something on our own. And that’s what we did. We are Matias, Mikko, Teemu, and Oladayo – university buddies, entrepreneurs by heart, and the four founders of ParkMan. We created ParkMan for the love of cities, local communities, and all our living environment.

We believe it’s about time to disrupt the whole concept of parking – an activity that has stayed relatively unchanged for the past 40 years. Smart parking system is critical not only to create better and more livable communities but to protect our environment, too. By moving people more efficiently to where they need to be, vehicles spend less time on the road and use less fuel to get to their destination.

After launching in Finland in 2011, we have expanded to various countries around the globe – and this is only the beginning for us. Our goal is to be No. 1 parking solution in the world, so that every single driver can get where they want in the most comfortable, energy efficient, and hassle-free way.

ParkMan currently operates in Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Lithuania, Estonia and in the United States. New countries and cities are joining all the time. ParkMan's Headquarter is located in Salmisaari Helsinki, Finland.