Kirkland-based INRIX announced on Thursday it has acquired ParkMe, a 25-person startup that tracks off-street parking availability and prices. INRIX says it plans to keep the Santa Monica, Calif-based company fully intact, and integrate its brand and technology into INRIX’s connected car platform.
Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
The two companies have already worked together for a while, as INRIX began licensing ParkMe’s data years ago when it expanded its offering from real-time traffic monitoring to a broader set of services.
INRIX now uses crowdsourced data from more than 100 million cars in its network to map traffic jams, road-use patterns, road weather and even the likely hood of finding on-street parking in certain areas.
With the ParkMe acquisition, the company plans to add more tools to let drivers find off-street parking. Sometime in the near future, INRIX is even working to add a function that would let you reserve and pay for parking from your car’s center console.
“Our mission has always been to make parking easier, faster and less expensive for consumers,” ParkMe co-founder and CEO Sam Friedman said in a Thursday press release. “By joining INRIX, we can achieve that vision faster than we could have on our own.”
INRIX says it plans to keep ParkMe’s services up and running, and will be making investments to expand its team in California.
