Volkswagen’s financial services arm acquired parking space mobile payments provider PayByPhone.

Announcing the completion of the deal, the app company said Volkswagen would look to expand the service into new verticals and increase the number of markets it operates in.

PayByPhone currently enables drivers in selected parts of the US, UK and France to pay for parking using their mobile handsets through its dedicated app. In 2016 the company processed over $250 million in payments from a customer base of 12.5 million users across its three markets.

In a statement announcing the acquisition PayByPhone CEO Kush Parikh said Volkswagen would look to expand the app’s current service into “different verticals, markets and use cases”.

Volkwagen Financial Services board member Christian Dahlheim added: “With the acquisition of PayByPhone, we are now the leading provider for the processing and mobile payment of parking. In the future, we will be bundling this know-how in a separate business field around the theme of parking”.

The company previously acquired a 92 per cent stake in German mobile parking payment company Sunhill Technologies, which operates across 90 German cities.

The value and terms of the PayByPhone deal were undisclosed.