AI-powered parking platform Metropolis today announced that it raised $1.7 billion to acquire SP Plus, a provider of parking facility management services, in a combination of equity and debt.
Eldridge Capital and 3L Capital co-led the tranche with participation from BDT & MSD Partners’ affiliated credit funds, Vista Credit Partners, Temasek, Slow Ventures and Assembly Ventures. As a part of the financing, Metropolis will take on $650 million in loans and $1.05 billion in Series C preferred stock financing.
Metropolis will pay roughly $1.5 billion for SP Plus “while retaining significant capital on its balance sheet,” Metropolis co-founder and CEO Alex Israel said in a press release. Prior to the latest fundraise, Metropolis had raised $226 million in total.
“Today, we announced a transformational acquisition that represents both a new paradigm in how technology companies grow and a significant step forward in offering consumers a remarkable experience,” Israel continued. “SP Plus is a phenomenal business whose operational excellence, talented leadership team and high customer satisfaction levels have long made it a key partner to real estate owners across North America. The combined platform will seek to bring checkout-free payment experiences to consumers.”
Israel, a serial entrepreneur who sold his last company, ParkMe, to Intrix in 2015, founded Metropolis in 2017. The company equips existing parking structures with a computer vision system that enables customers to “drive in and drive out” without having to swipe a credit card or pay with cash.
To use a Metropolis parking facility, customers have to provide their name, license plate, phone number and payment method. From an app, they can review their visit and know the price in real time. Metropolis tracks cars and automatically charges the owners, emailing the receipt after they drive out.
In SP Plus, Metropolis gains an established, publicly traded business with a massive parking footprint across the U.S. and Canada. SP Plus owns more than two million parking spaces and manages over 3,300 parking facility locations, as well as parking and shuttle bus operations at 160 airports.
Source: TechCrunch+
