To the delight of the Vend Park team, our very own Karan Singhal, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Vend, has won the National Parking Association’s 40 Under 40 award. The award is given to those under 40 years of age in the parking or transportation industry who have made a positive impact on the industry, who is a proven leader in the industry, and who is expected to play a significant role in the future of parking.

Since graduating from Tufts University in 2015 as a Computer-Science and Entrepreneurship double-major, Karan has been applying his expertise in technology to parking. Despite having job offers at leading technology companies, Karan set out to build “the Uber for valet parking” with his Tufts peer Mike Miele (now CEO of Vend Park). Although the on-demand valet business model was not economically viable, the surge of investment into the duo’s company SpotLight Parking and other start-ups in the industry was a major catalyst for innovation discovery. Karan and Mike became parking technology consultants, building solutions to enhance parking operations, reporting, and payment methods. They practically lived in the garage, and often saw customers struggling with QR code scanning issues and jammed credit cards. Clearly, the fragmentation of parking gate access modalities not only resulted in an inconsistent user experience, but also prevented mapping and navigation companies, rideshare apps, rental car services, connected vehicle manufacturers, and other mobility verticals from efficiently accessing parking. A lightbulb went off, and Vend Park was born.

Instead of creating yet another parking app, Mike and Karan aimed to build a hands-free, windows-up parking experience that could be embedded in any mobile app or connected vehicle through open APIs and SDKs. Today, they have positioned Vend Park as the conduit that digitizes parking access for the mobility sector. Vend’s gate hardware device, the Vend Gateway, can open any parking gate seamlessly and securely using Bluetooth. Mike often likens it to the Amazon Firestick: “It can turn an ordinary garage into a smart garage and enable digital demand channels overnight.” Mobile applications like ParkWhiz have already integrated Vend’s technology, and more demand channels are constantly being added. Vend’s APIs, SDKs, and hardware are Karan’s brainchild. They feature an encrypted Bluetooth communication protocol, a lane-classification system that leverages iBeacons and

neural networks, and a unified cloud for parking operators to manage transient, monthly, and third-party parking in one place. Mike spearheads business development and has engaged Vend with companies across the mobility sector, many of which are already integrating Vend’s contactless solution.

“I am honored to have been selected to represent the future of parking among my esteemed industry peers,” says Karan. At just 26 years old, Karan is one of the NPA’s youngest honorees. “There’s a lot more where this came from... I have much to learn, but I’m very optimistic about my team’s capabilities to better the parking industry. I’d like to thank my colleagues who work tirelessly and passionately to allow Vend to realize its potential, and thank you to the NPA for recognizing Vend Park.”

Congratulations, Karan!