10 Years of Digital Parking Management: How It All Began
Imagine you’re trying to book a flight to London. You google a few options and instantly find countless sites where you can compare airlines, select departure times, book with a few clicks — and then relax with a cup of coffee.
That was the expectation our CEO, Johannes Asp, had on a late autumn day in 2011 when he began searching for a garage space in Stockholm. To his surprise — and growing frustration — he discovered that no marketplace for available parking existed. Not only that: there was no way to rent a parking space online at all. Not even Blocket had anything to offer.
This was the moment the idea took shape — the idea that, after a long and winding journey, would become the SaaS company Mobility46. But the story started far from “Software as a Service”…
Johannes, when you look back at the early days, what stands out?
“The beginning was incredibly exciting — constant insights, big emotions, and huge learning curves. We didn’t know how big, small, or complex this could become. Sometimes I even miss how naive we were back then. We don’t have an hour of business development behind us — we have ten years.”
— Johannes Asp
Johannes soon learned that launching a marketplace for parking would be harder than expected. After evenings spent counting garage doors around Stockholm and days spent pitching their marketplace, Garagekoll.se, property owners repeatedly declined. Most of them had no inventory of their parking assets — and no structured process for renting out vacant spaces to the public.
From Marketplace to Parking Operator
Fast-forward a year and we find co-founder Pelle Sjögren standing in Polhemsgaraget on Kungsholmen, tape measure in hand, measuring parking spaces to optimise utilisation and pricing.
“We wanted to help property owners gain oversight — that’s how the idea of becoming a parking operator was born.”
— Pelle Sjögren
When Johannes and Pelle realised that owners lacked the basic visibility needed to use Garagekoll as a rental channel, they pivoted. Garagekoll became Parkando Technologies — a parking operator focused on structure, transparency, and digital processes.
A Digital Parking Management System Is Born
In those early days, the work involved mountains of paper binders and endless hours in Excel. But soon they started modernising the workflows:
- Scrive for digital contract signing
- A home-built invoicing system for automated billing
- A proprietary app for digital access keys
These three components later became the foundation for the digital parking management system Park46.
In true entrepreneurial spirit, they didn’t stop there. Listening closely to customer needs, they expanded into EV charging and shared mobility, launching Laddkoll and Elbilio.
“As a marketplace, we saw the need to become an operator. As an operator, we saw the need for EV charging and mobility services. We’ve always stayed open to building the ecosystem around parking — and that helped us understand the whole value chain.”
— Johannes
The Real Estate Industry Starts to Shift
A lot has changed over the past decade. Digitalisation and flexibility are now core expectations.
From property owners in 2012 being amazed that we used digital signatures, to people today being surprised when asked to sign a paper contract. From companies leasing traditional office space to the rapid rise of co-working and flexible work models.
“We built this company during a period when technology made massive leaps forward — and we’ve always tried to move with it.”
— Pelle
Today, digital parking management feels like a natural next step. Flexible parking models, EV charging, shared mobility, and user-friendly digital experiences are quickly becoming standard expectations — much like subscription services such as Spotify or Netflix.
“Ten years ago we found something with the potential to transform an entire industry, and we’ve stuck with it. Now we see major real estate companies like Klövern and Fabege entering this world and optimising parking at scale. That’s both inspiring and a huge responsibility.”
— Pelle
“Now it feels like we’ve truly arrived.”
The experiences from these years — from user-facing Garagekoll to property-owner-centric Parkando, and the launch of Laddkoll and Elbilio — have created a deep, holistic understanding of the entire parking ecosystem.
From Johannes and Pelle knocking on doors and wearing every hat…
“Listen to the jingle we made for Garagekoll — back when we thought we were good at marketing.”
— Johannes
…to today, where Mobility46 serves major enterprise clients and has a team of nearly 20 experts across EV charging, parking management, product development, and mobility innovation.
“Our team is unbelievably talented. Seeing them grow has been one of the biggest highlights. And signing enterprise customers like Klövern, Securitas and Fabege in the same year — that felt like a milestone. Now it feels like we’ve truly established ourselves.”
— Johannes
Pelle adds:
“It’s inspiring that after ten years, we’ve found our place — and that we’re helping drive forward the very industry transformation we envisioned from the start.”
— Pelle
Ten Years of Digital Parking Management — And We’re Just Getting Started
The future of parking is digital. What began as a simple idea — “Why can’t you rent a parking space online?” — has grown into a full-scale digital ecosystem for parking, EV charging, and mobility.
And we’re only at the beginning.
We look forward to continuing to build the future of parking management — together with you — for the next decade and beyond.
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Do you also want to take the step towards digital parking management?
We have been helping property owners and parking operators digitize and optimize their business for over ten years. Get in touch and we'll tell you how you can make the same journey.
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