VW Buys Canadian Parking-Payment Service

Volkswagen AG’s financial unit has agreed to buy PayByPhone, a Vancouver, B.C.-based service that enables users to pay for on-street parking with their smartphones. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

The acquisition, which will become a part of Volkswagen Financial Services AG, handles $300 million in transactions per year. Last year VW Financial bought 92% of Sunhill Technologies GmbH, Germany’s largest provider of mobile parking payment services.

The 15-year-old company, which claims 12.5 million users, operates in Canada, France, New Zealand, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S.

Customers use PayByPhone’s smartphone app to enter a location code for a parking meter and indicate how long they plan to occupy the parking space. Users can use the app to extend their metered time.