Qualcomm invests in street parking app maker Streetline

Street parking app developer Streetline has raised $25 million in Series C financing led by True Ventures, with both old and new investors participating. Pro-rata follow-on investments were made by Sutter Hill Ventures, RockPort Capital Partners and Fontinalis Partners, while new investors included Citi and Qualcomm.

Streetline offers real-time smart parking solutions in more than 30 cities and universities across the US, and has recently expanded to Europe with deployments in Braunschweig, Germany and Birmingham, UK. The company will use the fresh cash to build on this momentum and further extend its footprint globally.

Streetline’s patented smart parking platform detects the presence of a car through a network of wireless sensors located in individual parking spaces. Data from these sensors, or from the equipment installed in parking garages and lots, is then made available in real-time via various cloud-based applications. Streetline on its end integrates this data for over 23,000 locations into a unified and complete parking data package for consumers through the Parker mobile app/service.

Commenting on the funding, Qualcomm Ventures’ Vice president Quinn Li said: “Parking is a $25 billion industry in the United States alone, and the opportunity to rethink the whole parking experience is poised to accelerate dramatically in 2013 and beyond. Qualcomm’s investment in Streetline is based on the overall market opportunity, the company’s solid and diversified business model, and its smart strategy for growth. We look for companies that can be the leader in their market, and we see that in Streetline.”