Barking, the Estonian carwash and parking app that has raised €2.4 million, has expanded to New Zealand and is now called Snabb to emphasise its speed, convenience and global ambition.

Today, Snabb is active in Lithuania, Finland and Poland, in addition to the Estonian and New Zealand markets. Expansion has also started in America, Canada, Germany and Austria. Snabb has doubled its turnover every year it has been in operation, with a target to triple by 2022.
“When we set up Barking seven years ago, we focused on making it as affordable and convenient as possible for people to park. Today, we see more and more customers using us primarily because it is the most convenient and fastest solution for both parking and car washing. In the future, our ambition is to become an application where the car owner can get car wash, parking, electric car charging, insurance and tyre change”, said Kustas Kõiv, founder and CEO of Snabb, who sees the biggest growth potential in the car wash market. “Carwashing is in some ways still in the last century – you pay in coins, the whole process is cumbersome. With Snabb, it is possible to choose the nearest car wash and pay for the wash with just one click. The wallet can stay at home, Snabb is the user’s universal key to all laundrettes.”
While in Estonia the app has 30,000 users, in New Zealand more than 1,000 customers have joined Snabb in the first few months and have completed more than 5,500 car washes through the app. In Estonia, Snabb works with almost all car washes and gives drivers the opportunity to quickly clean their cars without having to change coins or queue for coffee.
In New Zealand, Barking uses Wwwash, a solution developed in-house and targeted at car washes. Currently, car washes in New Zealand can be started and paid for through the Wwwash app at five car washes. In the first half of 2022, the number of car washes is set to increase severalfold.
The Snabb name will first of all lead to a visual change of the brand in the app, online and in the car parks. In early summer, the platform will become even more convenient and user-friendly.
“While Barking is primarily associated with parking, Snabb brings the two together. In Swedish, ‘snabb’ means speed, and that’s what we want to offer our customers – the fastest way to both park and wash a car,” says Kõiv. To celebrate the name change, Snabb is offering all customers a half-price car wash until the end of the weekend.
With the Snabb app, drivers can park in Tallinn, Tartu and Pärnu without having to search for a parking zone or send an unnecessary message. The app also helps to avoid parking fines thanks to automated notifications.
Barking started in 2015 with the idea of bringing to the market parking spaces behind a barrier on private land, in order to use existing spaces instead of building new ones and thus offer landowners the opportunity to earn extra money. Barking’s founders and investors include Rain Lõhmus (Chairman of the Supervisory Board of LHV) and Marek Kiisa (Partner at NordicNinja VC).