Australian venture Kerb has launched in Dublin, providing a rival car park space rental service to Parkpnp.

Established 2016 by Rob Brown (pictured) and Matt Salmon, the founders say Kerb has been localised for 600 cities across Europe, Asia and Africa.

Listing a space is free but Kerb takes a 20% commission on booking fees for spaces.

The Kerb website currently has spaces up for grabs around Dublin city, varying in price from €14 for a spot on Mount Pleasant Avenue to €3 for a car-parking space on Brunswick Street North. Kerb also operates a car-park management system for schools, businesses and other organisations.

Parkpnp was created by Krust Bakery co-founder Garret Flower and has raised nearly €1.4m since launching in 2016. The venture runs a similar app-optimised platform for renting car-parking spaces, with a commission fee of 30%.

In Association with

Flower said he is nonplussed by the arrival of the Aussie rival to the Dublin market. “We welcome this foreign competitor but we we feel Parkpnp, as an Irish company with our base here, will have a clear advantage,” he said.

Flower added that Parkpnp has 50,000 current customers and 15,000 parking spaces listed. “First mover advantage is massive. You only have to look at how Uber has struggled in the Irish market to realise that it’s not as simple as parachuting a solution into a maturing market,” Flower added.