One of the consequences of urbanisation has been increased vehicle population leading to heavy traffic on roads every day. Even after reaching the venue, improper parking often results in inability to find a parking space. Due to this, a lot of time and fuel gets wasted.
After facing such issues themselves, Tridib Konwar and Mriganka Deka founded ParkingRhino in 2015 to digitise parking management for easy detection and booking of available parking space on-demand.
The startup, developed a smart parking management system. The system uses artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data analytics for providing real-time parking information to drivers. The analytics aid in checking the supply and demand, and enabling transparent transactions between parking operators and vehicle owners so that parking areas get utilised efficiently.
A mobile app with the same name for both iOS and Android was launched in 2016. It has more than four million verified parking spaces in several cities including Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Guwahati. Available parking slots are verified through a rating-based algorithm that works on several related parameters such as location of the area.
If the average score of a parking space is lower than the threshold, it is not shown in the list of nearby available parking, or for the specific address entered by the user. There is an option to change the radius of the search to narrow down or widen the area of interest. By tapping on a location, availability of facilities like car wash or car charge for electric vehicles is displayed on the app.
Details for both free and paid parking spots such as photos, location, operating hours, navigation routing, pricing and parking capacity can be checked. Information about nearby banks and ATMs, and events such as concerts, is available to further help the user. Payment for paid parking spaces can be made digitally through the app or with cash.
By 2017, the organisation launched its software-based B2B point-of-sale centralised data management platform to assist parking personnel in managing both on-street and off-street parking reservations. Unorganised parking spaces can be digitised quickly. Through real-time information about parking inventory and digitised revenue slips, contractors can remotely monitor parking spaces.
Parking operators can manage parking using the Web app through a monitoring system. The system can connect with any existing or new process through application programming interfaces (APIs). It can also connect to such existing hardware as parking meters, sensors and CCTVs via connectors to track current and previous occupancy.
The startup has received funding from various sources including Karnataka government’s ELEVATE 100 programme. It has had huge growth mainly due to its geo-navigation map-based search.
ParkingRhino was the official parking partner to ensure seamless parking operation across 95 parking locations during Kumbhmela 2019 event, held in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. The company is working for several smart city projects in India. Having extended its system to Philippines already, it is now working towards further expansion and improving the solution through AI.
