Monday, March 10, 2008

SpotScout parks $100K in new funding

By Christopher Calnan

A Cambridge company developing web-based tech for locating city parking spaces has attracted plenty of media attention, but not so much investment leading up to launching a test version of its product next week.

SpotScout Inc., which was featured on NBC's Today Show last year and lists the logos of 25 news organizations on its website, is scheduled to launch an alpha version of its software in Boston.

Last month, the company attracted a $100,000 investment in a convertible note from one unidentified investor, according to a filing with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Founder and CEO Andrew Rollert said the company has mostly survived on investments from friends and family, but plans to raise a round of funding within four months.

"Right now, we're really about focusing our efforts on finding people parking spaces everywhere they need to go and making the market work properly," Rollert wrote in an e-mail message. "Funding will come if we do this well."

SpotScout, which bills itself as the eBay of parking spaces, was founded in 2004. Its web-based application would enable drivers to sell information -- via SpotScout to incoming drivers -- about when they'll be vacating a parking space. And owners of spaces in garages, lots and driveways would be able to list their spaces and accept reservations.

SpotScout will be free for consumers, and Rollert has yet to publicly disclose how the company plans to generate revenue. He's planning to launch a beta version in mid-April.

Motorists already get information such as directions and news in their vehicles, and SpotScout's parking information is a logical progression to that, said David Beisel, the founder of the Web Innovators Group and vice president of Venrock, a Cambridge venture capital firm that is not an investor in SpotScout. Beisel said the small funding attracted by SpotScout is a reflection of Rollert's "scrappiness."

"If you're able to bootstrap and execute on a small amount of capital, it's a way to demonstrate what you could do if you're better capitalized," Beisel said.

In 2001, Rollert founded SaVoyant Inc., a Wellesley-based company that installed home technology. The company, for which Rollert served as CEO, closed its doors in 2003, he said.