Congestion and air pollution have plagued African cities in a approach that’s dangerous each to economics and the local weather. An built-in and environment friendly transport system is required if the continent is to advance. In Nairobi, a survey confirmed that the common time spent looking for a parking spot was 32 minutes.
The streets of Dakar, Senegal aren’t any exception. Parking just isn’t solely arduous to search out however the residents of the cosmopolitan metropolis resort to parking on sidewalks that are dangerous. After transferring to Senegal from the US, CEO Gabriela Marin had a lightbulb second after her son nearly acquired hit by a automotive parked on the sidewalk. The aerospace engineer determined to enterprise into the enterprise of making extra parking heaps to alleviate sidewalks by licensed empty heaps in Dakar.
“Operating a bodily parking zone was arduous then we anticipated,” says Gabi. “We additionally shortly realized that there was no parking operator software program geared for rising markets like Senegal.”
The workforce began by creating an operation/monitoring software and with that, they have been capable of nearly double their earnings as a result of they have been capable of perceive how a lot site visitors they have been having in a single parking zone. At this time, Parcsmart is constructing software program that not solely helps drivers discover and reserve a parking house utilizing their smartphones earlier than they attain their vacation spot but additionally allows parking operators to handle their heaps higher.
Parcsmart software program customers are multi-faceted and it’s not solely for-profit operators who use the product. Personal parking operators use the software program to handle heaps at their accommodations and personal communities. Road parkers within the casual markets use it to inform customers of parking areas out there on their sidewalks and drivers additionally use the app to order parking earlier than they arrive or as soon as they’re at their location.
Parcsmart has encountered just a few challenges deploying its product and determining the context by which they function. One key realization was that their customers wouldn’t be comfy going on the web and navigating to a web site and typically the person might not even be capable of learn.
“We acquired the person interface proper after some trial and error and we created a function the place we are able to take pictures of the tag of a car and the algorithm will decrypt the tag by laptop imaginative and prescient and document it routinely,” says CTO Lamine Ba. “We additionally diminished the variety of buttons that it’s a must to click on by to be able to document a car.”
The imaginative and prescient is to democratize parking and have folks utilizing Parcsmart globally in cities that want it probably the most. Understanding the market and together with a number of gamers of their worth chain is serving Parcsmart nicely and it’s apparent that their influence shall be phenomenal.
The submit Senegal’s Sensible-Parking Answer for Africa appeared first on Startupbootcamp.