By; Kirsten Korosec [@kirstenkorosec]
SpotAngels, an app that uses crowdsourced data to help drivers find parking and avoid tickets, has raised $2.3 million from a group of investors that includes Google Maps co-founder Lars Rasmussen.
Luc Vincent, the former head of Google Street View and vice president of engineering at Lyft, as well as Y Combinator, Streamlined Ventures and Via ID also invested in the round.
The startup plans to use the funding to expand to other U.S. cities and improve its free mobile app, including a new “predicted availability” feature that it hopes to launch later this year. The new feature allows drivers to know what the odds are of finding a spot in any given area before heading there.
The existing app works like a network — the more users, the better the intel. Once a user installs the app, it can provide real-time data to the greater SpotAngels community. The app, which uses the car’s Bluetooth connection or phone motion sensors, knows when the user’s vehicle is parking or leaving a spot.
This is going to be really useful in the Town of Palm Beach. The number 1 concern for residents in town is “Where can I park?”
Brownie Bytes 