Parking is a big problem, especially in metropolitan areas. Inspired by a bad experience, Dhananjaya Bharadwaj decided to solve this problem.

The former deputy commandant’s new SUV was damaged while parked in a lot in Delhi.

He had to pay more than Rs 1.75 lakh to repair it. “I knew that I couldn’t be the only person facing this problem and harassment by the parking mafia,” he says.

He devised a solution with his friend Abhimanyu Singh – ParkMate, an app-based platform that offers hyperlocal and on-demand parking solutions for businesses and individuals.

The two government servants first wrote a technical paper about the parking problem. This research led to a long-term viable solution.

“We found that 97 percent of the parking industry is unorganised. Traffic congestion leads to a Rs 1.45 lakh crore-worth economic opportunity loss in four major cities of India. Of this, Rs 36,000 crore is due to parking congestion. A person burns 100 litres of fuel searching for parking daily,” says Dhananjaya, CEO and co-founder, ParkMate.

ParkMate offers two solutions — DASH (Drop and Shop) for individuals and the Trident system for businesses for parking management.

Users can download the application, enter the destination, book a valet, and reach there. ParkMate’s attendants, who are OTP verified, will pick up the car from the set location.

Dhananjaya says that all cars are GPS-tagged, enabling users to track their vehicle’s live movement. They also share 360-degree images of the cars before and after delivery with the customers.

ParkMate charges Rs 49 for its services plus the parking charges. For businesses like malls, shopping complexes, big residential societies and government offices, they offer a suite of software and hardware services to automate the parking space through the Trident system.

ParkMate’s transactions are totally paperless. Started in July 2022, their services are present in six cities including Delhi-NCR, Lucknow, Pune and more.

The duo shares that they serve over four lakh customers per month, having catered to more than 25 lakh customers so far.

Their goal is now to expand across the country and become the go-to parking solution for Indians. “We don’t want anyone to worry about parking when they go out. We want them to have a good time. The risk is on us,” Dhananjaya remarks.