ParkPoolr, a parking management app launched in 2019 by a University of Minnesota student, has been acquired by a national parking services provider, Nashville-based Parking Management Company (PMC).

Terms were not disclosed, but ParkPoolr founder Jackson Lefebvre, who won the MN Cup startup competition’s student division in 2019 and spent the last two years delivering for DoorDash at night to keep funding his startup, took a job with PMC as part of the acquisition deal.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Jackson and the ParkPoolr team to PMC,” president Matt Cahill said in a statement. “Their rapid expansion as a relative newcomer to the industry was remarkable and a testament to their exceptional services and technology.”

Lefebvre’s initial light bulb moment struck while trying to park for a Gopher football game. A church near Huntington Bank Stadium (then TCF Bank Stadium) was renting spaces, which prompted Lefebvre to develop an app that would connect drivers and those with parking for rent near high-traffic destinations like Allianz Field and the Minnesota State Fair. That business model propelled ParkPoolr to the top of the MN Cup student division. Lefebvre used the $30,000 prize to hire an agency that could help him build “legit software,” and during the pandemic, he pivoted the business from a focus on events parking to daily management of commercial self-park lots, providing digital reservation and payment services.

“I went city by city, contacting every parking lot owner I could and pitched them on implementing our technology,” Lefebvre said. His mentor,  tech entrepreneur and investor Daren Cotter, describes the ParkPoolr founder as having “great qualities of entrepreneurship: gritty, tenacious, perseverance. He was never afraid to ask questions or ask for help when he needed it.”

ParkPoolr had grown to more than 60 clients in 21 markets across the country when PMC came calling in late 2023. PMC was interested in ParkPoolr’s proprietary payment processing and lot management technology. Lefebvre will work on the sales side as regional director of commercial parking for PMC.

“It’s pretty wild,” said Lefebvre, 26, who is excited about earning a regular salary for the first time in his short career, on top of his payout from the sale of the company. Perhaps now he might think about replacing his 2007 Chevrolet Impala—or at least repairing the dent from a run-in with a deer.