November 19, 2023
Parkn'Sleep, the first parking app for campers, was launched over two years ago. The Airbnb for campers digitizes and automates booking processes in the camping market. "As nature-loving campers, you just want to go for a drive," Lukas Imhof begins his presentation to the investors. The program was broadcast on 3+ on Tuesday evening. Ultimate freedom, parking somewhere, spending the night and getting on the bike the next morning is the wish of every camping fan. "But the reality is different." According to Imhof, the unchecked camping boom is coming up against outdated structures: those who don't book a campsite in advance nowadays usually end up on a municipal parking lot.
However, these are also overused, which is why the municipalities have no choice but to ban camping. "We have found a solution that connects campers and pitch providers," says co-founder of Parkn'Sleep, Adam Opuchlik. The web app they developed for this purpose shows campers where there are pitches from official hosts and whether they are currently available.
The program with the young entrepreneurs from Küssnacht was recorded in February. At that time, Parkn'Sleep had 800 pitch providers and 17,000 registered campers. "So dear Lowen, invest now in the fastest growing market in the travel industry," Imhof urged the investors, saying that they were prepared to give ten percent of their company for 350,000 francs. "We want to use the newly created capital to invest in internationalization and drive forward product expansion.
Too little meat on the bone?
"The idea is so obvious - and no one has realized it yet?" asks investor Felix Betram incredulously and receives a clear "no" from the two start-up founders. When asked about the number of pitches, Lukas Imhof replies: "We currently have around 2,000 individual pitches in Switzerland and recorded a good 8,500 overnight stays across Europe last year.
Then the big arithmetic begins with investor Anja Graf, which all in all does not produce a satisfactory result for her and then Jürg Schwarzenbach either. "Too little meat on the bone," they both agree, and Imhof confirms this: Only for Switzerland would the effort with the app really not be worth it. "But that's exactly why we're here. We want to expand into Europe with an investment." Meanwhile, two sharks are convinced by Parkn'Sleep and are offering 350,000 francs - Roland Brack wants 15 percent and Lukas Speiser 13 percent of the company. The founders make the deal with Roland Brack because of his network. "From now on, I'm only going camping," he says with a grin at the end.
Embarrassing faux pas by Anja Graf uncovered by viewers
There was a reason why Anja Graf didn't see any meat on the bone: according to one viewer, the TV investor had made a massive miscalculation. "With 2,000 seats, that's not two, but 4 million overnight stays. If you can do the math, you have a clear advantage in the shark tank," wrote one user on social media. They also forgot to add the CHF 23 per overnight stay, which results in a profit of CHF 3.5 million for Parkn'Sleep," another TV viewer calculates. And he is right, Anja Graf forgot the turnover and instead only came up with a profit of CHF 100,000.
Successful expansion
A deal on the show is followed by an investment process with the sharks. During this process, the founders of Parkn'Sleep had the opportunity to launch a crowd-investing campaign on the oomnium.com platform, where digital Parkn'Sleep shares could be purchased for as little as 250 francs. "We could hardly believe it, but during the campaign we raised 350,000 francs within four weeks and gave up ten percent of the company in return." Thanks to this success, Lukas Imhof and Adam Opuchlik ultimately decided against the investment of a single, large TV lion and instead financed their company and their expansion idea with many small investors, the so-called crowd.
Joelle Maillart from "Today" was behind the scenes at the TV studio and accompanied the two founders during filming.
The sky is the limit
As many as 25% of company shares are now digitized and publicly traded. Interested parties can therefore buy or sell shares directly in the form of a public offering. "The company's aim is to allow its users and fans to participate in its success and to create added value for the entire community in the long term, both in terms of the quality and quantity of the offering."
From the article by Free Swiss
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Thanks to the DLT Act, which has been in force since 2021, shares can now also be issued as so-called registered securities (digital shares). The Parkn'Sleep share is based on Ethereum blockchain technology (ERC 20 standard). The shares were tokenized by the company aktionariat.com, which also provides the trading venue on the Parkn'Sleep website.
You can now become a shareholder of Parkn'Sleep. You can find out how to do this here:
Secure shares
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