Parking Technology Startup Pivoting to Online Dating

PALO ALTO, CA — Spark, founded in 2018, is ending the service life of its parking availability and payment features to focus online dating services. Spark Founder and CEO, Payton McAllister announced the decision at the National Federation of Parking, Mobility, Transportation, Micro-Mobility and Commuter Professionals (NFPMTMMCP) Winter Conference, Symposium and Expo. “We’ve amassed so much parking data through our partnerships and services to the point where we realized the difference we can make in peoples lives through online dating services. With our aggregator partnerships and LPR (License Plate Recognition) solutions, we know where men and women are going and where they came from. We know their parking habits. We know if they are likely to pay a parking meter or not. We know those who are willing to park in a garage and walk several blocks to their end destination or would pay more to park closer to their end destination. This type of data is a goldmine in the dating services market. We plan to use this data to match men and women similar to apps like Tinder or OkCupid. It aligns perfectly with our core values,” says McAllister. Marketdata estimates that the total United States dating services market grew 48% between 2016 and 2019, reaching a value of $3.55 billion.