HotSpot Parking makes move into U.S. market

Fredericton startup firm HotSpot Parking is making a move into the United States by partnering with an American firm.

HotSpotis teaming up with Passport Parking of North Carolina, which operates in Toronto and Boston, as well as some other large markets in the United States.

What HotSpot brings to the partnership, through Hotspot Merchant Solutions, is the ability for merchants in an area to be aware of anycustomers who are in their business who have used theapp to pay for parking,

That enables merchants to do things, such astop up their customer's meter, or provide free parking for them, should they choose to do so.

"It's all about customer service," said HotSpot founder and chief executive officerPhillip Curley.

"And it's very important to these small businesses who frequently lose customers running out and putting tokens in the meter and that's the best solution they have.

"We actually have a little sensor network set up so we actually can tell if somebody using HotSpot appsto park downtown walks into a specific store," he said.

"What we do with that information is basically give them VIP services."

HotSpot's revenue comes from merchants paying a subscription fee for the service.

HotSpot currently operates in Fredericton, Saint John, Moncton and Charlottetown, with about 30 per cent of merchants subscribed in the areas served.

U.S. partnership

Passport Parking has more than 1,000 locations worldwide where they do pay-by-phone parking, similarHotSpot's servicein its Maritime locations. However, Passport doesn't have the same ability to serve merchants in an area.

"I believe they had to go to such large cities that they didn't have the ability really to learn all the merchants needs in those cities and develop the relationships required to figure out how do they better serve the merchants," said Curley.

HotSpot and Passport are to launch their joint product inAshville, N.C. which has a population of about 90,000. They will then move into four major markets, each with a population of more than fourmillion.

Passport has satellite offices in Bangelore, India, and Barcelona, Spain, and its North American markets include Chicago, Toronto, Boston, Tucson, Az., Salt Lake City, Utan and White Plains, N.Y.

Curleysays HotSpot will have a "large hiring spree" to go along with the move into the major markets, but declined to put a number on the number of people he expects to hire.