Volkswagen Financial Services has acquired the PayByPhone app-based parking system from PayPoint.

The system, based in Canada but used in many UK car parks and by local authorities, operates in Canada, USA, France, Great Britain, Switzerland and Australia.

In 2016 PayByPhone processed roughly 60 million transactions with a total volume of around £204 million.

"With our acquisition of PayByPhone, we are now the leading provider for the processing and mobile payment of parking procedures. In the future we will be bundling this know-how in a separate business field around the theme of parking," said Dr. Christian Dahlheim, the Management Board member responsible for sales and marketing at Volkswagen Financial Services AG.

He added: "For us, PayByPhone is the ideal addition to our portfolio because the company enables us to consistently expand our international presence in all areas relating to mobile parking management and digital payment solutions. Moreover, PayByPhone is highly innovative with excellent user-friendliness on all mobile devices."

"At the moment, parking procedures and their billing are often cumbersome, time-consuming and a sore point in many cities throughout Europe and the world. Nevertheless, parking is something that is directly related to the use of every car," Dahlheim continued. 

In 2015 Volkswagen Financial Services AG has already acquired a 92% shareholding in sunhill technologies GmbH, a company that offers its cashless payment solutions for parking operations in 90 German cities and is therefore the leading provider on the German parking market.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for PayByPhone to explore new ways to expand our mobile payments technology into different verticals, markets and use cases. The mobile payment movement has exploded recently, and we look forward to accelerating our consumer parking and payments agenda made possible by this deal,” said Kush Parikh, CEO of PayByPhone.

“Volkswagen Financial Services AG has been at the forefront of innovation to fit its customers’ mobile lives, and we are honoured to be a part of its global vision.”

The key component of the offer is the app, which is available in the respective markets for iOS, Android and Blackberry.

Via the app, customers can select their specific parking area and their desired parking time and then pay directly. An alarm function alerts users when their virtual parking permit is running out. Extending the parking time is also possible with a few clicks on the smartphone. PayByPhone was the first provider of mobile payment solutions for parking services to integrate the Apple Pay and Android Pay payment procedures in its app.

Key rival RingGo's parent company, ParkMobile, received investment from BMW in 2014.

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