Tekion: $150 Million Funding And Over $1 Billion Valuation

By Annie Baker ● Oct 22, 2020
  • Tekion — a cloud technology company and provider of SaaS retail operating platform (aka DMS), Automotive Retail Cloud — announced it has raised $150 million in Series C funding

Tekion — a cloud technology company and provider of SaaS retail operating platform (aka DMS), Automotive Retail Cloud — announced it has raised $150 million in Series C funding at over a $1 billion valuation. This round of funding was led by Advent International with participation from Index Ventures, Exor (the holding company of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Ferrari), Airbus Ventures, and FM Capital. And Tekion’s other key investors from the Automotive industry include General Motors, BMW iVentures and Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi Alliance Ventures.

Tekion started on-boarding dealers on its Automotive Retail Cloud platform in Q3 2019. And it is growing rapidly nationwide by partnering with manufacturers and dealers of all sizes. The company counts some of the country’s most influential dealer groups as its dealer partners in 28 states and growing across the country. And Tekion’s Automotive Retail Cloud already integrates with 17 OEM brands and the company is targeting to complete the remaining OEM integrations in early 2021.

Advent’s investment is going to provide Tekion with fresh capital to support additional investment in its platform and scaling the company. Before Advent’s investment, Tekion had raised $65 million in equity financing from investors including Index Ventures, Storm Ventures, General Motors (GM), Alliance Ventures (Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi), BMW iVentures, Exor, AME Cloud Ventures, and many dealer groups.

Jon McNeill, Advent Advisory Partner, former Chief Operating Officer of Lyft and former President of Global Sales, Marketing, Delivery and Service at Tesla also joined Tekion’s Board of Directors with Eric Wei of Advent.

KEY QUOTES:

“Today’s consumers receive outstanding personalized retail experiences from companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Disney. Why shouldn’t they expect the same in their vehicle acquisition and service needs? We believe Tekion will be the trailblazer for enabling the modernization of the entire consumer journey and providing the best experiences and operational efficiencies, period. It’s time to even the playing field for the automotive retail industry. We are fortunate and proud to be supported by great investors from the world’s top OEM brands, top dealers in the country, venture and private equity firms. We consider this as true validation of the value we are bringing to the industry. We are thrilled to welcome Advent as we scale our business, expand our products and transform what the auto retail experience should be.”

— Jay Vijayan, CEO of Tekion

“Tekion is the true disrupter the industry has been waiting on for decades. I’m very impressed with their modern DMS platform and their awesome team. I’m so convinced that their technology and vision will transform automotive retail for consumers, dealers and manufacturers that I wanted to be a part of the change by investing in the company.”

— Joe Serra, President, Serra Automotive Inc., who owns 50 dealerships representing 62 franchises spread across the country

“The automotive retail and dealer technology ecosystem are ripe for disruption. It has operated for too long with outdated technology and patchwork systems that fail to meet the needs of modern dealers and their customers. From the moment we started talking to Tekion’s dealers, we were blown away by the ease and speed of the migration process, especially from the multiple dealers who transitioned in one month’s time, entirely remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their dealer-friendly approach to contract terms and data ownership will be a breath of fresh air for dealers. We are incredibly excited about the platform and the size of the opportunity.”

— Eric Wei, a Managing Director on Advent’s technology investment team in Palo Alto

“We believe Tekion’s cloud-native technology, which simplifies sales and service for both consumers and dealership employees, has the potential to transform the automobile ownership experience.”

— Mark Norman, Managing Partner at FM Capital