Malaysians create ParkEasy to save your spot in crowded venues

Innovation nation: (From left) Yong, Chan, Tan and Mah showing their ParkEasy mobile app at Agensi Inovasi Malaysia in Cyberjaya.

PETALING JAYA: Fighting for parking space is nothing new to Malaysians but what if there is a way to reserve your spot?

Four young Malaysians have come up with a novel idea that allows motorists to book their parking spot via a mobile app.

ParkEasy CEO Warren Chan said the idea was borne of frustration at the difficulty of getting a spot at busy shopping malls.

“I have booked movie tickets using mobile apps so I thought why can’t we book a parking spot too?” he said.

Chan and three friends – Eric Tan, who serves as chief technolo­gy officer, Winnie Mah, the engi­neering vice-president, and senior developer Yong Shung Jiu – then started working intensively on such an app in August last year.

To develop the app, the four raised RM90,000 and received a RM210,000 matching grant from the Government ­– a scheme that encourages discipline and moti­va­­tion in the project by in­ves­­ted participants.

The result is the ParkEasy app, through which one can scout available bays remotely, get a bird’s eye view of the parking floor, use intelligent navigation to find the designated spot and not worry about where the vehicle is parked as the app will remember the location.

“For a small fee, the app protects your parking from others. If someone else gets into the parking bay ‘illegally’, it will activate an alarm,” said Chan.

“The operations team at the mall is also equipped with their own app. They will be able to head straight to the ‘illegal’ parking and clamp the car.”

The innovation has also caught the attention of Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Da­­tuk Mah Siew Keong, who cited the app as an example of Malay­sian innovation and creativity in his speech at the Innovating Malaysia Conference 2016 in Kuala Lumpur recently.

Visit parkeasy.my for more information.