Luxe proves on-demand parking is big … $20M series A round big

We all know that services like Uber and Lyft have proved that so-called ride-sharing is big money. Now we can add parking to the list of car-related industries disrupted by the Internet and mobile apps.

Today Luxe, an on-demand parking service, said it has closed a $20 million series A round of financing. It also announced it will expand into Boston, Chicago, and Seattle by the end of April. Luxe, which until now has been available only in San Francisco and Los Angeles and only on iOS, is also releasing an Android app.

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Luxe said it hopes to expand to other cities in the United States this year.

The company announced a $5.5 million seed round of funding in October. The series A round was led by Venrock and Redpoint Ventures. Venrock’s Brian Ascher and Redpoint’s Ryan Sarver — formerly head of platform at Twitter — are joining Luxe’s board of directors.

With Luxe, people can drive into congested areas and, via a mobile app, connect with a valet who will park their car. It works like this: Using its app, you drop a pin on a map to indicate where you’re going. When you arrive, a Luxe valet meets you and drives your car off to a parking garage. The app allows you to track your car’s location throughout its time in Luxe’s care. The company aims to get your ride back to you within 10 minutes of your indicating you want it back, also via the app. It has contracted with parking garages in its service cities.

Luxe said that it has grown dramatically over the past six months. The company said it has seen 90 percent month-over-month growth in customers, 97 percent month-over-month growth in transactions, and customers using its $15-a-day flat-rate service twice a week on average.

Of course, Luxe isn’t alone in the on-demand parking wars. As VentureBeat has previously reported on, competing services like Zirx and Vatler in San Francisco and ValetAnywhere in New York City are also helping time-crunched drivers with their parking needs.

Luxe said that it has also hired former BitTorrent chief operating officer Ro Choy as chief business officer.