🅿️ How AirGarage Scaled to 300 Locations Without Building a Single Parking Spot

For AirGarage, expanding into cities meant a choice: invest millions to build new parking garages, or find the spaces hiding in plain sight.

AirGarage’s footprint now spans over 300 parking lots and garages across 38 states, all brought online by partnering with property owners to leverage their empty spaces. A nationwide “virtual” parking network scaled without pouring a single slab of concrete.

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America’s cityscapes are shaped by parking. Some urban districts dedicate up to 30% of their land to parking, yet it’s still common for drivers to spend significant time circling endlessly for a spot. In busy areas, this may account for a third of the traffic.

AirGarage’s founders lived this frustration daily, having experienced firsthand the scarcity of parking at Arizona State University. Despite acres of asphalt around the campus, finding parking felt impossible. They knew demand was massive, but creating new supply the traditional way, by building garages or lots, would require significant capital investment. Each structured parking space costs upwards of $25,000–$35,000 to build, not to mention real estate costs. As a scrappy startup, AirGarage wasn’t about to pour concrete or cash into new construction. They needed a hack.

Driving around neighborhoods, they started to notice something, tons of parking lots sat empty most of the time. Office buildings were packed on weekdays, but ghost towns on weekends. Churches were full on Sundays, vacant just about every other day of the week. Hotel lots were typically half empty during business hours and medical lots went dark after 5PM. They realized the disconnect wasn’t too little parking, it was timing. This was premium asphalt invisible to drivers who desperately needed it and property owners with no way to reach them or rent out their excess capacity. 

For a keen startup, these underutilized lots were profit centers hiding in plain sight.

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In 2018, AirGarage had their “aha” moment, pivoting from a peer-to-peer driveway rental app to partnering directly with property owners to unlock their unused spaces. 

Churches were just the beginning as the founders realized the same logic could be applied everywhere. Each property owner faced the same challenge, they had valuable real estate sitting idle. For those owners, AirGarage offered a simple full-stack, turn-key solution that made things effortless. Advertising, payment processing, and license plate scanning for enforcement, all handled. Property owners just collected checks. In one click, hotels could block out spaces for guests, then let AirGarage rent out the rest. Medical offices can reserve spots for patients during the day and open up after 6PM. 

The result was product market fit. A 175-space church in Charleston saw monthly revenue increase from $23,000 to $39,000 in just two months. An extra $274K per year, all without inconveniencing their Sunday service.

The parking problem had become a revenue unlock for property owners across multiple industries.

This asset-light model became AirGarage’s competitive advantage. While competitors poured millions into concrete and construction, they were onboarding existing lots at lightning speed. Within two years, they were managing over 150 lots across more than 30 states. By late 2021, that had shot up to 200+ locations. Today, it’s over 300 lots and facilities in 38 states.

They created a three-way marketplace that worked for everyone. Property owners saw revenue bumps of 20-50% with little to no lift, drivers got access to convenient parking that was previously invisible or off-limits, and AirGarage captured value by making the whole system work seamlessly. They elegantly expanded urban parking, without building a single new space.

Where others built concrete, they built connectivity, creating a thriving marketplace, proving that sometimes the best way to solve scarcity is to make better use of what’s already there.

10x - AirGarage’s growth since Series A, achieving cash flow positivity.

$23M - AirGarage’s Series B led by Headline Growth, closed in July 2025.

234% - Net Revenue Retention at 24 months. After owners see them handle one property, they often want them to take over all their properties.

$7.9B - The size of the Parking Management Market

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