ICT student Lucas came up with ‘Airbnb for parking spaces’

by Willem Brouwer - bron.fontys.nl

Whether he is a groundbreaking thinker who will change the world? He is, says graduating ICT student Lucas Castelein (23). With the startupSimplePark, the Tilburger is among the eight finalists of the competition ‘the most innovative student of the Netherlands’.

Parking the car: finding a free spot is increasingly difficult in this country. Especially now that many municipalities are allocating to car-free cities. Not to mention the increasing number of electronic cars and (the lack of) charging stations, ev-chargers. Castelein's partner Sjoerd van Gerwen, already an ICT graduate, found that parking spaces are occupied longer and more often, including those with charging stations.

He joined forces with Castelein, where the startup SimplePark rolled out. ‘From there, our all-in-one parking app was born: an innovative platform that makes unused private parking spaces and charging stations accessible to others. On the street, in car parks, but also in people's homes in their driveways. Renting out private parking spaces is what makes SimplePark unique.’

How that works is simple. ‘If you are away from home with your car all day, you make your parking space available. Another motorist can reserve this spot via the app.’ Endless driving around looking for a parking spot is a thing of the past with SimplePark, Castelein knows. The landlord sets his own hourly rate. The amount is between 1.50 and 4 euros.

Pitch in front of 500 people
He calls the app ‘a kind of Airbnb for parking spaces’. The tenant can see if the parking space in question has a canopy, gate or charging station. ‘The landlord gets to see who made the booking, and with which car,’ he says. For SimplePark to be a success, it needs a lot of active parkers. The twenty-something knows that better than anyone else.

Nevertheless, Castelein is already happy that the startup made it to the finals of the competition. ‘On 17 October, we get to pitch our story in front of 500 people working in innovative sectors. That's already a victory for us.’ 

For now, it's hard work ahead. The app is in full development and a revenue model is being worked on. ‘We are also looking for investors who can help us finance a marketing plan, for example. How do we market our service properly?’, the ICT student asks himself.
 

Still plenty of work to do for Castelein. Whether he wins the competition or not does not change his intentions. ‘We will continue with SimplePark anyway,’ he concludes.

Lucas (centre) and Sjoerd with fellow students who helped them develop SimplePark last year

Omroep Brabant made an item about it, watch the excerpt from the 8 October broadcast here (Dutch only).