#CLTstartups

Local startup PassportParking raises $6M, one of Charlotte’s largest rounds

Posted on 18 Dec 2013 by Justin Ruckman

Read more by Adam O’Daniel at the Charlotte Business Journal.

In 2010, investment banker Bobby Youakim had a pet peeve: paying for parking — not the fee itself, but how it was collected.

So he set out to modernize the process. And, last week, he closed $6 million in venture capital from Grotech Ventures and Relevance Capital for his Charlotte startup, PassportParking.

“I thought to myself, ‘We’re in 2010 and we’re still stuffing cash into little boxes,’ ” he says. “‘This is messed up. It’s gotta change.’”