It’s not just the dealer groups that are heating up the M&A activity: June has kicked off with major moves from the auto industry software giants. Less than a week after CDK Global purchased Roadster, Reynolds and Reynolds announced Tuesday it has bought Gubagoo, a provider of “conversational commerce” and retail solutions for dealers and automakers. […] [Read More]

Automotive Ventures supports automotive technology entrepreneurs, businesses and investors with industry-specific resources, strategic consulting and extensive connections. And now the firm has more financial resources to complete those tasks and more. On Tuesday, Automotive Ventures chief executive officer and founder Steve Greenfield announced the final closing of the firm’s inaugural venture fund, Automotive Ventures Fund […] [Read More]

Digital Dealership System, or DDS, a dealer screen marketing company, is the newest MarketCenter supplier for Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram and Fiat dealerships. The company has a dealer list of over 1,000 installations complete throughout the U.S. What’s been most popular among its offerings is the company’s messaging on digital signage and kiosks, which works to […] [Read More]

Carsharing marketplace for ridesharing and food/package delivery services, HyreCar Inc. is joining the Russell 3000 Index, effective when the the U.S. market opens on June 28, according to a preliminary list of additions posted Friday. “We have worked hard to get to this point, taking the company from concept to now joining the Russell 3000, […] [Read More]

In a little less than a month from first making the decision known publicly, Solera Holdings announced on Monday that it has completed its acquisitions of Omnitracs, DealerSocket and eDriving. Omnitracs is a leading fleet management platform, while DealerSocket is a SaaS provider to the automotive industry and eDriving is the digital driver risk management […] [Read More]

Imagine Autos is bringing a new video-centric car buying experience to consumers. The site works to deliver an easy-to-use, interactive layout that lets consumers watch videos of vehicles they're interested in purchasing. Imagine Autos is “bringing the car buying experience” to the digital age by being one of the only third-party car listing site that focuses on […] [Read More]

CDK Global announced Wednesday that it purchased Roadster in a $360 million deal, a merger that has huge implications for the digital retail segment of automotive. What brought the two companies together? How might Roadster's digital retail capabilities complement CDK's technology? What additional opportunities does the merger bring to each company? CDK chief product and […] [Read More]

In this case, it could be considered positive that dealers have their heads in the clouds. This week, Dominion VUE DMS released results of its 2021 DMS Dealer Sentiment Survey, a commissioned independent study involving 220 DMS decisionmakers from dealerships to determine attitudes toward their current dealer management system. The cloud-native solution provider highlighted five […] [Read More]

Toyota venture capital firm Toyota AI Ventures is rebranding and investing another $300 million in emerging technologies and carbon neutrality efforts. The firm will be now known as Toyota Ventures, and the additional investment boost grows its total assets under management to more than $500 million. Further, two early-stage funds — the Toyota Ventures Frontier Fund […] [Read More]

Carvana, which launched a little more than eight years ago, has made its first appearance on the Fortune 500, and says it is one of the quickest tech companies to make the list. In fact, the company said it made the list in the same amount of time as Facebook did. “Based on organic growth […] [Read More]