General Motors must like the potential of UVeye, a provider of advanced vehicle diagnostic systems.
This week, UVeye announced it has received an investment from the automaker’s capital venture arm — GM Ventures — to help fund the development and commercialization of the company’s vehicle inspection technology.
According to a news release, UVeye also has entered into a commercial agreement with GM to explore the expansion of UVeye’s automated high-speed systems to GM dealerships throughout various markets.
Serving as the venture capital arm of General Motors, GM Ventures strategically invests in startup companies that share GM’s enterprise vision of an all-electric, hands-free, and more seamlessly connected future, and are helping to position GM as a leading transportation technology enterprise.
As part of the strategic collaboration agreement, the two companies have agreed to work on a variety of vehicle-inspection technology projects involving used-vehicle auctions, fleet operations and dealership sales.
In the future, UVeye plans to incorporate electric-vehicle and autonomous-driving platforms into its inspection databases as well.
UVeye systems use artificial intelligence, machine-learning and high-definition camera technologies to quickly and accurately check tires, underbody components and vehicle exteriors for defects, missing parts and other safety-related issues.
More than 4,000 GM dealerships will be eligible to purchase the vehicle-inspection equipment to use in their service lanes. The team will also explore applications for extending the technology to exterior scans and photography to generate online interest and potential sales for used vehicles.
“We are on a journey to create the best customer service experience possible and the implementation of UVeye into our dealership service lanes helps us do that,” said John Roth, GM global vice president of customer care and aftersales.
“Providing real-time, consistent and accurate feedback to our customers will help us ensure they are getting the best performance out of their vehicle,” Roth continued in a news release
UVeye chief executive officer and co-founder Amir Hever highlighted that automated inspection processes take seconds to complete and are significantly more accurate than time-consuming manual inspections commonly in use today.
UVeye currently has facilities in North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region, including offices in Israel, Japan, Germany and the United States. The company has formed strategic partnerships with numerous dealership groups, used-car auctions and vehicle fleets since it was founded in 2016.
GM dealerships have access to three high-speed UVeye systems that utilize a unique combination of proprietary algorithms, cloud architecture, artificial intelligence, machine learning and sensor-fusion technologies. They include:
—Helios: An underbody scanner that detects a wide variety of problems including frame damage, missing parts and fluid leaks, as well as brake and exhaust-system issues.
—Artemis: A system that checks tire quality. Within seconds it identifies tire brand, technical specifications, air pressure, tread depth, sidewall damage, alignment issues and whether or not a vehicle’s tires are mismatched.
—Atlas: A 360-degree detection system that checks sheet metal and other external body components such as bumpers, door locks, grilles and windows.
Hever believes that UVeye shares a common vision with General Motors for improved service quality that can benefit dealers, service technicians and customers alike.
“High-speed inspection equipment can serve as tools of empowerment for new- and used-car dealers,” Hever said in the news release. “We very much look forward to working with GM in the months and years ahead. Both companies share the same vision and sense of innovation and when it comes to vehicle quality, the future is a bright one.”
Early implementations of UVeye’s technology at a limited number of GM dealers in North America are already yielding positive results.
As the collaboration continues, the two companies said they will look to expand the applications of the technology across GM’s global dealer network, enhancing the robustness of real time vehicle diagnostics and creating a more streamlined exchange of information between customers, their vehicles and service technicians.
Bank of America evidently enjoys working with the Lucid Group.
On Wednesday, the luxury electric vehicle manufacturer announced entry into a credit agreement with an initial committed amount of up to $1.0 billion with Bank of America serving as the administrative agent and swingline lender on the transaction.
According to a news release, other lenders in the initial bank syndicate for the credit facility include:
—Citigroup
—Barclays Bank
—Goldman Sachs Bank USA
—JPMorgan Chase Bank
—BNP Paribas
—Royal Bank of Canada, Capital Markets
—HSBC Bank USA
—MUFG Bank
—Sumitomo Mitsui Banking
—Wells Fargo Bank
“We are pleased to complete this credit facility with an exceptional syndicate of banks, which illustrates our ability to access alternative forms of financing and provides us with further financial flexibility to scale our business,” Lucid chief finance officer Sherry House said in the news release.
“We ended the first quarter of 2022 with close to $5.4 billion of cash on hand, which we expect will fund us well into 2023. We remain committed to scaling our business and are executing against our strategic objectives,” House continued.
Certain terms and covenants contained in the new credit facility include:
—Provides revolving credit under the facility with an initial committed amount of up to $1.0 billion, with availability based on the value of certain eligible assets included in the borrowing base from time to time, and includes a $350.0 million sublimit for letters of credit and a $100.0 million sublimit for swingline loans.
—Provides for uncommitted incremental revolving commitments of up to an additional $500.0 million, plus certain other amounts, in each case subject to obtaining the commitments from lenders providing such incremental commitments.
—The credit facility has a stated term of five years, maturing on June 9, 2027.
Previously, Bank of America pledged to be the institution behind Lucid Financial Services to help consumers secure financing for the company’s EVs.
Continuing our series of special episodes of the Auto Remarketing Podcasts featuring general sessions from this year’s Auto Intel Summit — an added benefit for Cherokee Media Group Premium Members — we take another look at the potential for electric vehicles through the prism of the investment community.
Allen Bryant of Knightsgate Ventures and Bill Cariss of Holman Ventures offer their viewpoints during panel discussion moderated by John Possumato of DriveItAway.
To listen to the episode, go to this webpage.
Continuing our series of special episodes of the Auto Remarketing Podcasts featuring general sessions from this year’s Auto Intel Summit — an added benefit for Cherokee Media Group Premium Members — we feature two leaders who know automotive and investing.
Scot Wingo of Spiffy and Brian Panoff of Shell Ventures share a back-and-forth exchange recapping what it’s like to raise capital as an automotive tech startup.
To listen to the episode, go to this webpage.
In March, Automotive Ventures launched an investment fund that focuses on driving strong returns for dealers who invest in early-stage dealership technologies.
And Tuesday, the automotive technology and mobility venture capital firm added three industry veterans to sustain that project as well as the others in its portfolio.
Andrew Gordon, Adam Lafferty and Brian Reed now are all part of Automotive Ventures’ leadership team, serving in a variety of development and operational capacities.
Automotive Ventures explained through a news release that these latest appointments help the company further connect investors with emerging automotive and mobility tech companies to fund the next wave of transportation innovation.
Gordon has been appointed head of value creation at Automotive Ventures.
Prior to joining Automotive Ventures, he was a third generation Honda dealer and the former founder and chief executive officer of DealerScience, which was acquired by TrueCar.
A 25-year automotive industry veteran, Gordon works closely with dealer groups throughout the U.S. to identify solutions that solve key challenges dealers face today, and to guide them as they invest in emerging technologies that are transforming the future of the industry.
Lafferty has been appointed vice president of operations at Automotive Ventures.
The firm described Lafferty as a longstanding technology operations leader and entrepreneur. Formerly, Lafferty served as senior director of strategy and operations for TrueCar and was part of the Center of Operational Excellence for Cornerstone Technologies, a cloud-based people development software and learning tech company.
According to the news release, Lafferty will manage Automotive Ventures’ strategic operations to prepare the company to scale up and grow its investor and portfolio company base.
Reed has been appointed operating partner of Automotive Ventures to help the company work closely with its investors, better identify companies for investment and accelerate their adoption post-investment.
Reed is founder of Digital Auto Advisors, which offers automotive technology consulting and intelligence services to the industry. Formerly, he was the cofounder and CEO of Intersection Technologies and F&I Express, which were acquired by Cox Automotive.
In 2006, Reed was named J.D. Power’s Pioneer of the Internet for establishing auto finance on the Internet. He’s an advisor and board member for several automotive technology organizations.
“Automotive Ventures is committed to hiring the best people to support our investors and entrepreneurs,” Automotive Ventures founder and CEO Steve Greenfield said in the news relase. “I’ve been lucky enough to have worked with Andrew, Adam and Brian in the past, and I respect their leadership skills, value their insight and welcome their vision and ingenuity to support our limited partners and help our portfolio companies grow.
“I’m honored that they’ve decided to join the Automotive Ventures leadership team and I look forward to driving the company forward together.”
Along with the Automotive Ventures DealerFund, the company recently introduced its Mobility Index, which tracks the health of publicly traded mobility companies, weighted by their market capitalization.
And Greenfield also was with a variety of entrepreneurs during this year’s Auto Intel Summit, moderating a panel discussion with some of the 2022 Emerging 8 honorees. If you’re a Cherokee Media Group Premium Member, you can listen to the conversation via this webpage.
In this episode of the Auto Remarketing Podcast recorded at the Auto Intel Summit last week in Raleigh, N.C., we connect with Scott Case, who is chief executive officer of Recurrent, a company that analyzes electric vehicle battery health and one of this year's "Emerging 8" honorees.
Case discusses the company's recent $4.5 million round of funding and its new partnerships in both the retail and wholesale car markets.
To listen to the conversation, click on the link available below, or visit the Auto Remarketing Podcast page.
Download and subscribe to the Auto Remarketing Podcast on iTunes or on Google Play.
Automotive Ventures founder and chief executive officer Steve Greenfield is back on the show to share more details about the new Automotive Ventures DealerFund the company launched earlier this month.
Greenfield explains the "aha moment" that prompted Automotive Ventures to start this fund, how the capital would be used, how dealers are building technologies, the target investors for the fund and much more.
Greenfield will be among the contingent of speakers at next month's Auto Intel Summit in Raleigh, N.C. He is set to be the emcee for a luncheon spotlighting the annual "Emerging 8" honorees, and will moderate a panel discussion with several executives from Emering 8 companies.
For more details on the Automotive Ventures DealerFund, listen to the podcast with Greenfield below.
Download and subscribe to the Auto Remarketing Podcast on iTunes or on Google Play.
Spiffy has landed a $10 million investment from Edison Partners that extends its Series B funding of $22 million announced last fall.
The new investment bumps the Series B to $32 million and gives Spiffy additional capital to expand geographically and for recruiting.
The on-demand car care, tech and services company has grown in the last eight years from being a mobile car wash and detail startup in North Carolina’s Research Triangle region to now being a B2B and B2C vehicle maintenance and care service providers in more than 30 markets across the country, serving both individual consumers and fleets.
“Spiffy has grown into a formidable leader within the mobile car care industry — making it easier for both consumer and fleet clientele to save time with truly convenient services, something we have seen gain exponential value coming out of the pandemic,” said Lenard Marcus, general partner at Edison Partners, in a news release.
“We’ve enjoyed watching their team consistently rise to overcome new challenges for their customers and look forward to supporting their continued growth in the months and years ahead,” Marcus said.
In addition to helping facilitate Spiffy’s expansion throughout the 50 largest U.S. markets, the funding will also help Spiffy expand on its service offerings for consumers and fleets in existing markets — services like the recently announced Smart Tumbler device that helps remove odors stemming from organic materials, smoke molecules and bacteria.
Spiffy also plans to use the funding for recruitment and retention at its Durham, N.C. headquarters as well as throughout its markets.
“I’ve been quoted a lot over the last few years saying vehicles are going to change more in the next 10 years than they have in the last 110, and we are really seeing those drastic shifts now throughout the automotive industry. Our team operates at the intersection of a direct customer experience and aiding larger fleets in need of clean, odor-free, and well-maintained vehicles. Both segments need a trustworthy solution, and that’s where Spiffy comes in,” Spiffy chief executive Scot Wingo said in a release.
“With this investment from Edison Partners rounding out our recent Series B, we’re poised to expand our vision for the next level of scale.”
Automotive Ventures knows how to orchestrate contests to help startups and other blossoming industry firms, as shown by the success of the NAVIcon Cup at Used Car Week.
The latest endeavor from Automotive Ventures surfaced on Wednesday, as the automotive technology, venture capital and consulting firm announced a call for contestants for the Shell Startup Showdown.
The showdown is a joint effort between Automotive Ventures and Shell Lubricants, one of the world’s top lubricants suppliers for the past 15 years. The contest will award grants to top early-stage automotive technology startups that are innovating in the areas of mobility, customer experience, net-zero emissions and new energies.
The competition, which aims to recognize and reward automotive technology companies that best align with Shell’s goal to power progress through more and cleaner energy solutions, launches on Feb. 15 and finishes with a Demo Day to Shell Lubricants executives on March 29.
According to a news release, Automotive Ventures and Shell Lubricants will jointly select five startup finalists to meet periodically over six weeks with mentors from both Shell’s leadership team and Automotive Ventures to strengthen their business pitch before Demo Day.
The companies explained this preparatory program was developed to help finalists improve their story and value proposition, optimize their presentations and network with industry experts in advance of the competition.
A winner and runner up will be selected by Shell Lubricants executives on Demo Day to receive $35,000 and $15,000 grants, respectively.
“Shell Lubricants and Automotive Ventures partnered to demonstrate our collective and ongoing support of automotive technology companies that improve global mobility and energy sustainability,” said Steve Greenfield, founder and chief executive officer of Automotive Ventures.
“With the help of expert mentors, the Shell Startup Showdown empowers companies to finetune their pitch and successfully showcase their product, service and growth potential,” Greenfield continued in the news release. “Additionally, the competition connects entrepreneurs with Shell Lubricant’s executives for prospective business opportunities going forward.”
Shell is a global energy company with around 84,000 employees across more than 70 countries. Shell said it has pledged to advancing technologies and taking an innovative approach to help build a sustainable energy future.
“We are committed to entrepreneurs who know that sustainable energy and efficient mobility can, and should, successfully coexist with the financial and physical health of our business and customers. Shell Startup Showdown is just one example of the many ways we are improving our future,” said Steve Reindl, SVP of Shell Lubricants Americas.
Shell Startup Showdown is designed to spotlight early-stage companies that closely align with Shell’s growth and sustainability goals across various aspects of the automotive industry — those that best improve business operations and consumer experiences in the areas of mobility, net-zero emissions and new energies.
Interested pre-seed and seed stage automotive technology startups can apply via this website.
Carketa continued to stay on a positive trajectory last week, landing more financial resources to grow the dealership solutions software company.
The Utah-based developer of SaaS applications for the automotive industry announced it closed a $6 million series seed financing led by Origin Ventures and Crosslink Capital with additional funding from Hack VC, Lancaster and I2BF.
Founded in 2019, Carketa’s mission is to help independent and franchised dealers optimize every aspect of their operation by selling more vehicles in less time, for more profit.
“With this round of funding, Carketa is expanding sales internationally to independent and franchise dealers and accelerating the release of exciting new tools,” Carketa chief executive officer Brady Thurgood said in a news release.
Carketa co-founder Jason Berry also owns Action Auto, one of Utah’s fastest-growing independent car dealerships. Carketa was initially formed to improve the reconditioning process to simply sell more cars per month. Berry’s experience with online selling solutions turned out to be “outdated and clunky.”
Carketa is looking to improve dealers’ current processes while tightly coupled with the Carketa Condition Report, a 200-point inspection system detailing a vehicle’s current condition.
Origin Ventures is based in Chicago and was an early backer of BacklotCars.
“The automotive space is undergoing immense transformation right now. Between COVID, innovation from online players, and the ongoing supply issues, the industry is just ripe for disruption,” said Scott Stern, partner at Origin Ventures.
“Carketa is uniquely positioned to help digitize and modernize one of the most important processes within any dealership — reconditioning. With better insights and better data, the company has immense opportunity ahead of it,” Stern continued.
Crosslink Capital is based in San Francisco, and led Carketa’s pre-seed round last August.
“We have watched Carketa make a major difference to its customers since launching their first product and we are excited for the next of many chapters together. We are building a category-defining company.” Crosslink partner Jim Feuille said.
Carketa looks to provide an easy to use tool to automate the recon process, eliminates bottlenecks and help dealers sell more vehicles faster.
With Carketa Recon, dealers can upload their inventory from their dealer management software (DMS) and manage their vehicles from acquisition to the customer purchase through active inventory management and vehicle valuations.
With Carketa Connect, dealers and customers can track the vehicle through the process, often selling the vehicle before it’s frontline ready.
“Carketa has helped my dealership set record-setting sales months even through COVID,” Berry said.
Earlier this year, Carketa became a partner of CDK Global.
Last week, Carketa also indicated that it’s expanding its sales team across the U.S. and Canada.
“We’re excited about Carketa’s future,” Thurgood said. “Online car selling is changing fast and our new and upcoming software tools will accelerate the process. We are fortunate to be in a position to help dealers deliver a more efficient car buying/selling experience.
“Through smart technology, the Carketa software is helping our dealerships streamline their processes, optimizing all areas of their dealership,” he went on to say.
