July the 13th, 2025 – Another innovative startup from Croatia has emerged. The Croatian startup PayParq is not only winning over people nationwide, but has enormous investment potential.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, gorgeous Brela is one of the most famous tourist destinations on the Makarska Riviera. It isn’t exactly the place you’d expect a startup to spring from. The Croatian startup PayParq draws its origins precisely from Brela, and this innovative technology platform was launched about ten days ago. At its helm sits 33-year-old graduate economist Karlo Žamić, who has gathered a serious team of experts around him.
The Croatian startup has a web platform aptly named PayParq. In its essence, it all seems very simple. According to its aforementioned founder, however, it has enormous investment potential and is aspiring to become a global hit in solving the constant worldwide problem of parking in cities and tourist-dense areas.
The Croatian startup PayParq has a platform which works on the principle of renting out parking spaces. In other words, landowners conclude contracts with PayParq partners who place advertisements for their land on the platform. Users then enter their desired destination and time in the search fields, and the system and algorithm automatically generate available spaces and their price. The huge advantage here is that parking spaces can be reserved for days, weeks or even entire months in advance. That makes it so that users can target reservations during periods when there are lower prices and less demand.
It’s also important to emphasise that the supply and demand model is not the only one that defines the prices, but also the location itself. This means that parking spaces in the immediate vicinity of the requested location will be slightly more expensive, and those a little further away will be slightly cheaper.
“We launched an initial version of the platform with limited capabilities. We genuinely didn’t expect it to become so popular. Given this expansion, we began developing a sophisticated global platform that will be available by autumn,” they pointed out from the Croatian startup PayParq. The platform has actually become popular in a short time because it also provides passive income to land owners, or car parks. The system operates on a simple revenue sharing model with no risk for the land owner.
The entrepreneur who started the whole Croatian startup PayParq saga is naturally delighted with the development of the platform.
“I’m from Brela and have been involved in tourism all my life, I know very well what the crowds are like during the very height of the summer tourist season and how much of a precious commodity parking is today across the world, especially in Dalmatia. We’ve therefore developed a model that allows landowners to put their properties into use and generate passive income that can reach up to 100 euros per day per parking space at a time of high demand. Additionally, in a way, we become partners with municipalities, cities and counties that are already struggling with this pressing problem on a daily basis. We relieve them of this huge burden and of unnecessary multi-million-euro investments. The model is very fair and is set up in such a way that a part of each transaction is retained by the landowner without any risk,” explained Karlo Žamić, adding that they are already working at 20 locations across seven Dalmatian municipalities.
He added that it is important to know that all those interested across Croatia can contact them and that the implementation of the QR code and activation of the location is possible within 24 hours. That alone makes the entire model extremely flexible.
“We aren’t just talking about plots of land in the classic sense, we’re also talking about an unused parking space in the very heart of Split or Zagreb that is sitting pointless and empty in someone’s ownership. In other words, we’re the Airbnb for parking. I know that sounds a bit pathetic, but it’s true,” giggled the entrepreneur, adding that they have already received serious offers for the development of their platform from interested investors from Austria, Germany and France.
“That was our only motive, but at one point we realized that this could be a national but also a global story. For now, we are more than satisfied with the development of the situation and we are constantly receiving inquiries. We are currently focused on expanding the team and fine-tuning all legal, security and other aspects so that the platform will function flawlessly in the near future,” adds Žamić.
The founder of PayParq claims that they are not in competition with utility companies or city or municipal parking companies, but quite the opposite.
“The laws of the market are such that time moves forward. We are facing a technological revolution and concern for citizens. With this model, it makes absolutely no sense, for example, to charge fixed parking prices in the area of entire cities and municipalities. The algorithm is the one that should measure supply, demand, the attractiveness of the location and thus regulate the price. Why would someone in Split in January, when the city is practically empty, pay 5 euros for parking overnight, and there are, say, two cars in the entire parking lot. It is realistic for them to pay 5 or 10 cents per hour. This would eradicate illegal parking, relieve roads and sidewalks, and neighborhoods that have become congested with cars. It is also unrealistic for parking to be charged the same as at night in the middle of the summer season, between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., when there is high demand. Then, of course, it will be more expensive, which will partly discourage traffic jams in city centers and everyone will be satisfied again. Landowners and citizens who will be willing to pay a higher price for parking in city centers,” he concludes Zamic.
