Metropolis

Metropolis Technologies is a Santa Monica, California-based company that uses computer vision and machine learning to identify vehicles and process payments automatically at parking facilities, without a ticket, gate transaction, or physical card swipe. Founded in 2017, the company describes itself as operating the largest parking network in North America and has used a series of acquisitions to expand from parking into other physical-world payment settings it refers to as the "Recognition Economy."

Metropolis was started by Alex Israel, Travis Kell, Peter Fisher, and Courtney Fukuda after Israel's earlier company, ParkMe, was acquired by INRIX in 2015. The company grew initially through its own parking-technology deployments and the 2022 acquisition of Nashville-based operator Premier Parking, then substantially expanded scale in 2024 by taking the publicly traded SP Plus Corporation private for approximately $1.5 billion, adding SP Plus's parking and mobility-services footprint across North America and Europe.

In January 2025, Metropolis acquired Israeli computer-vision firm Oosto (formerly AnyVision) in an all-stock deal to bring additional recognition technology in-house. In November 2025, the company secured $1.6 billion in combined equity and debt financing, including a $500 million Series D round led by a fund managed by LionTree, valuing Metropolis at approximately $5 billion and financing plans to extend its recognition platform into retail, fueling, hospitality, and drive-thru settings.