Interview: Olivier de Clercq – Concar

Concar / Parkd is the inventor and first provider of automated parking solutions to fleets. Based in Antwerp, Belgium, the company currently operates in Benelux and ambitions to deploy its solution around the world. Olivier de Clercq is the co-founder and CEO of the company.

Olivier, could you please give a short introduction of Concar?

Concar enables mobility providers to leverage B2B connected car data to enhance their offerings or launch new services, such as automated payments for on-street parking or PAYD (Pay-As-You-Drive).

We are the only marketplace that integrates directly with track-and-trace providers (Fleet Management Software providers). With over 25 integrations to date, we have immediate access to a potential network of 12 million connected fleet vehicles across Europe and North America.

What sets Concar apart is our ability to monitor this data in real time, ensuring that financial transactions based on GPS coordinates are not only possible, but also accurate.

What is the problem that Parkd is trying to solve?

We began with automated parking because it represents a significant hidden cost for companies. Often, employees forget to start their parking sessions, which results in fines. Other times, they forget to stop them, causing companies to overpay. Parkd eliminates this inefficiency and cost by automating the entire parking payment cycle – using connected car data to start and stop sessions automatically. This means no more fines, no more overpayments.

On average, our solution helps companies reduce their parking costs immediately by 30%.

What’s Parkd’s approach to solve it? What do your customers like in your services?

We completely automate the on-street parking process. You park, and the session starts automatically. When you leave, it ends automatically.
Companies value the significant cost savings, not just in terms of parking spend, but also through reduced administrative overhead related to things like parking fines. Employees love it because it allows them to stay focused on their core responsibilities, without the distraction of repetitive and unnecessary side tasks.
Since launching six years ago, we haven’t lost a single customer. We have zero churn and an outstanding Net Promoter Score of 68, to put that into perspective, Netflix also has an NPS of 68.

How do you differentiate against other parking payment providers like EasyPark or PayByPhone?

All traditional mobile parking apps offer the same functionality: employees must manually start and stop parking sessions via their smartphone.

Parkd, however, automates the entire process. Unlike most providers, which started as consumer platforms, Parkd was built from day one with a singular focus on fleets. This is a major distinction. For instance, our system is based on license plates, not user accounts. This also makes Parkd the only parking provider that offers a full solution for shared cars.

We call this evolution Parking 3.0:

• First, you had the parking meter
• Then, the mobile parking app
• Now, automated parking

We’re also now working on our second patent, building on the deep technical and market experience we’ve gained over the past years, to make the solution even more seamless.

What is Concar’s funding situation? Do you expect to start generating positive cash flows soon?

We expect to reach break-even within the next 3 months.

In the meantime we are receiving a lot of interest from potential investors, but we foremost want to find a perfect match.

Can your solution work outside of Benelux?

Absolutely. Concar’s patented automated parking solution is available to parking providers internationally. Since our connected car network spans all of Europe and North America, there are no geographical limitations to deploying our solution.

Do you think that the satellite positioning approach could be applied in other markets?

Yes, definitely.
We’re already in discussions with tolling companies that are moving toward free-floating toll networks.

Concar’s strength is that we eliminate the need for any additional hardware. Thanks to our connected car data, we can offer a cardless, hardware-free, seamless tolling experience.

Beyond tolling, we’re also seeing growing interest from companies that offer fuel cards, EV passes, and broader mobility solutions