The pandemic will slightly slow the penetration of smart parking barriers into global markets

The smart parking barrier Parklio, a product of the Split company Amplifico managed by the eponymous mobile application, recently attracted investors from the UAE who invested 30 million kuna in it. This smart parking barrier, similar to a classic one that prevents parking in a specific place, is the first to be managed by a mobile application, created quite by accident by Dario Boras, Josip Labrović, Marko Smoljo, and Karlo Gašpar, inspired by the difficulties in finding a parking space.

Six years ago, they founded Amplifico, a company that has been recording growth in revenue and profit year after year. At the time Parklio was created, the engineering team of Amplifico was developing a range of other products, but this mobile smart parking barrier attracted the most market attention. Therefore, the founders and owners of the company decided to focus on further development of smart parking products, which proved to be a hit.

Turning Point

Control of Parklio is enabled by the eponymous mobile application through which a digital key can be sent to other users within a time interval defined by someone. The advantage of this application over others is its quality, and all software and hardware were developed in-house, making Parklio a 100 percent Croatian product, which the founders are extremely proud of.

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—– In addition to being high quality, our products are among the most technologically advanced devices in the parking industry. We are currently present in over 35 countries worldwide. The system is location-independent and can be installed anywhere. Moreover, we can integrate with existing solutions and enhance them with our product range – emphasizes Dario Boras, co-founder and co-owner of Amplifico.
Parklio is not just a mobile application or a parking barrier, but a platform for smart parking, and the company Amplifico has a whole range of smart parking products, which includes both hardware and software.

In 2017, Parklio was declared the second-best startup in the world at the Startup Olympics in Singapore, competing against more than five thousand startups from a hundred countries, and Boras emphasizes that this event was a turning point for the company’s business.

– A small startup from Croatia was recognized as the second best in the world, which was truly a great recognition for all the effort we put into developing Parklio. Along with the recognition, we received several offers from investors who were members of the jury at the competition. We declined them because we had concluded a seed round with private investors from Slovakia who invested 200,000 euros and became owners of 20 percent of the company – explains Boras.

Split vs. Singapore

At that time, they also received an offer from the Singapore government to finance the development and placement of the product in foreign markets. They had only one condition – to relocate to Singapore. However, Boras, who completed his master’s degree in computer science in Vienna, emphasizes that as wonderful as Singapore is, he and his colleagues decided to stay in Croatia, specifically in Split, because they love that city. They consider themselves lucky to have the opportunity to live there while exporting their product to almost all continents. Although thanks to an investment of five million dollars, Amplifico will open an office in the UAE and most likely in one of the larger European countries, Boras and the team do not intend to leave Split.

– In the last few years, we have had several investment offers, but we really did not need additional financial investments because we had healthy growth and were on the set path regarding the company’s development. Last year, through LinkedIn, Jamil Shinawi, a serial entrepreneur and investor from Dubai, contacted us. Along with Jamil, the investor team consists of three other people from the UAE, and the biggest reason we decided to collaborate is that besides having extremely strong finances, the investors represent strategic partners in the full sense of the word.

Considering the wide network of partners they have, the market of the Middle East almost instantly opens up for us with investors and collaboration with numerous large companies in Europe and the USA – notes Boras, but he does not want to disclose what portion of the company was allocated to investors as it is a business secret.

Investment in a Top Team

The money will mostly be invested in strengthening production capacities and creating new jobs. Currently, there are sixteen employees in the company, whose founders have very ambitious goals and a crystal-clear vision.

– In addition to strong production capacities, we also need a top team that can bring all this to fruition. We are in the process of opening an office in Dubai and, depending on the business development, the option of opening an office in one of the European countries during this year is not excluded – emphasizes Boras.

Although the IT industry has difficulties in finding quality staff, Boras believes that they can easily attract new employees because they are developing very interesting products, and Amplifico is also an attractive employer. He adds that a large number of IT companies in Split, as well as in Croatia, are exclusively engaged in agency work and developing software or hardware for foreign companies, and their employees quickly become weary of switching from one project to another without feeling that they contribute to the development of something big and make a difference.

– At Parklio, we are focused exclusively on developing our own product, and our people are closely specialized in the department they work in, we use the most modern technologies, we have an excellent atmosphere in the company, and I am confident that all members of our team feel important and that they are working on something big that will fundamentally change the industry. This makes us an extremely attractive employer, and so far we have not encountered problems in increasing the number of employees – says Boras.

Prepared for the Pandemic

Although it has been shown that technology companies are among the most resilient to the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, Amplifico still has a small number of canceled orders.

– We have a strong enough financial background to get through this without major problems, but I expect a moderate decline in product placements in the second and third quarters. We have created a whole range of products that can solve any parking problem, we will listen to market signals and actively adjust our approach strategy – notes Boras.

He believes that this crisis will be the end for a large number of smaller companies and startups, but not for those who make the right decisions at the right time. On the other hand, for startups, this can be a turning point in a positive sense because they are inherently agile and pivot ideas much more easily compared to large corporations, even though they have a much stronger financial foundation.

Greater Chances for Survival

Boras emphasizes that the coronavirus pandemic has shown how fragile an economy relying on tourism and similar activities is, but also that the IT industry is very resilient to external factors and has a greater chance of surviving in times of crisis, which is why the state should focus much more on it.

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– The formula is extremely simple and has been successfully demonstrated multiple times in other countries. High contributions and payments to the state place a heavy burden on small and medium-sized enterprises, making them uncompetitive in the labor market compared to other European countries. The Croatian bureaucratic apparatus is an insult to a country that considers itself a modern member of the European Union, and this is something that certainly needs to be worked on and modernized. In addition to all of the above, reducing state levies and contributions will ensure the competitiveness of Croatian companies and make Croatia much more attractive for foreign investments – explains Boras, emphasizing that the item representing a pledge for the future of the IT industry and something that should attract more attention is the education of future IT personnel, modernizing educational programs, and creating a symbiosis between the real sector and Croatian universities. 

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