Israeli smart-park firm Pango sells its US operation

The US operations of Israeli parking payment firm Pango have been acquired by an American firm working in the same space, called Parking By Phone.

The companies did not say how much the deal was valued at.

As a result, Pango technology will be deployed in cities across the US, bringing to Parking By Phone’s customers Pango’s “world class technology and great employees who are changing the landscape in the US market,” according to Luis Garma, executive president of Parking By Phone.

The Pango app currently allows drivers to pay for parking at street meters and in parking lots in over 60 cities in Israel, Europe and the US. Drivers using Pango to park activate the app, which determines their location. Using a built-in database, the app activates an on-phone “meter,” registering the car with a municipal database.

Parking enforcement officials who check meters and give out citations for vehicles parked in spaces with expired meters query the database and pass over vehicles that have the Pango app running. Upon returning to their vehicle and ending the “parking event,” drivers are told how much they owe, and the sum is added to their cellphone bill or a pre-registered credit card, and collected later on by the parking enforcement agency.

Drivers who use this system no longer have to feed the meter every couple of hours, and they are charged by the minute only for time parked – so they don’t end up paying for unused time as they might on a coin-operated meter. To alleviate the possibility that hackers could get into a user’s account and get their personal details, Pango has a number of anti-hacking features, from secure (128-bit SSL) encryption to voice access via caller ID and/or PIN code.

Pango has over 1 million customers in the US, Poland, Brazil and Israel, the company said. Now, Pango will be joining a network of phone-based smart parking solutions operated by Parking By Phone in more than 100 cities in the US and Latin America, with a total of more than 5 million users.

“We are excited to join with the Pango USA family,” said Yossi Ben Harosh, CEO of Parking By Phone International. “Parking By Phone’s vision of providing mobile smart city solutions and coupled with the execution track record to win globally is the perfect place for Pango USA. Pango is a great addition to our vision, and we look forward to position ourselves strongly in the North American market.”