zirx12It seems to be getting more difficult — and expensive — to park your car in Seattle, and now one startup wants to help make that process easier.

San Francisco-based Zirx has launched in the Emerald City, marking the company’s first expansion outside the Bay Area. Zirx, which just raised a $6.4 million round earlier this month, is an on-demand valet service that parks your car for $15 per day.

Here’s how it works. You designate a pick-up location on Zirx’s app, and 5-to-7 minutes later, an agent shows up at your car. He or she will drive your car to a secure parking facility that the company has partnered with. When you want your car again, you select a location and an agent will bring your vehicle there.

Zirx pays parking garage operators to rent space it needs to store vehicles. In case of an accident, Zirx has a $1 million insurance policy for the vehicle itself, and a $1 million policy for the agent, who is also screened for driving records and background checks.

Zirx has been operating in San Francisco for about five months. There are a few other similar on-demand parking startups around the country doing something similar, including Vatler, Valet Boss, and Luxe Valet.

But the recent funding round, led by Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures, is notable. And for an all-day parking fare of $15 — which is the same if not cheaper than most options in downtown Seattle — it seems Zirx could catch on with users, particularly with the success of other new on-demand services.

Zirx will first operate in Seattle's South Lake Union.
Zirx will first operate in Seattle’s South Lake Union.

Gavin George, the operations manager for Zirx, called Seattle a “booming city with various parking problems” in an interview with GeekWire today.

“It’s like a small San Francisco,” he said.

The service is operating in South Lake Union for now from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday through Friday, so Amazon.com employees that struggle to find parking may want to give Zirx a try.

We’ve reached out to Zirx CEO Sean Behr for more details and will update this story when we hear back.

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