Rekor Announces Venture To Launch Smart Permit and Parking Management Startup

ROKER combines blockchain and license plate recognition technologies to modernize permitting and citation processes

Rekor Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:REKR) ("Rekor"), a Maryland-based company providing real-time roadway intelligence through AI-driven decisions, and Cygnet Infotech, a premier product engineering and application development services firm along with affiliates of Cygnet, today announced the launch of a standalone company, to be named ROKER (pronounced “rock-er”), to automate parking enforcement and enable higher revenue recovery for both public safety institutions and private businesses alike. Rekor and Cygnet are each contributing their respective technology stacks in exchange for equity in ROKER, with Rekor receiving 50% of the venture.

The companies joined forces to develop and launch ROKER, a new approach that provides an end-to-end solution for simplified parking permitting, electronic citation management and parking enforcement for consumers, businesses and government. The solution is enabled by Rekor Systems’ vehicle recognition solutions and Cygnet’s blockchain and engineering solutions. Sachin Bedi, CEO of Cygnet Infotech, will transition to ROKER and serve as its CEO.

ROKER will immediately begin raising a Series A round of funding, with the advisement of Cooley LLP, who also helped them finalize formation in mid-May. Cooley advises 6,000+ innovative, high-growth companies from pre-formation founder teams to many of the most sophisticated tech companies in the world.

“In recent years, the smart parking market hovered around a $5 billion valuation -- by 2025, that’s anticipated to more than double,” said Sachin Bedi. “We are excited to bring Rekor and Cygnet Infotech technology to this space, launch a new company to meet the needs in these markets, and accelerate our growth. We are already on the fast track to a successful final product.”

ROKER will be a hardware-agnostic solution, leveraging proprietary intellectual property from both contributing companies. ROKER creates an ecosystem for smart parking that will converge with smart city initiatives across the globe. The solution will modernize existing processes, allowing for increased compliance and efficiencies while decreasing overhead costs associated with parking enforcement and citation management.

ROKER will automatically generate and enforce smart permits, integrating with back end citation management systems and leveraging images from most existing IP camera security systems to identify registered license plates.

“ROKER will change how we manage parking enforcement across the board, making it easier for institutions to close revenue gaps and maximize staff resources. With this solution individuals, government institutions and private businesses will be able to digitize any number of parking spots and enforce that parking through smart permitting, citations and towing. Rekor’s nexus to Cygnet developed through both companies working together on IP360, Rekor’s citation management platform, which launched successfully in 2019 operating in the United States and internationally. Cygnet is the ideal partner in continuing the development of ROKER,” said Robert A. Berman, President and CEO of Rekor.

Powered by blockchain technology, the system can enable digital contracts for parking permits, accept payments and provide transaction traceability. ROKER maintains CJIS compliance, an FBI standard for data security and encryption for criminal justice and law enforcement professionals at all levels of government.

To learn more about ROKER, please visit www.rokerinc.com