Investment Archives | Page 4 of 5 | Auto Remarketing

PODCAST: Automotive Ventures CEO Steve Greenfield

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Steve Greenfield, founder and chief executive officer at Automotive Ventures, joins the Auto Remarketing Podcast to discuss the company's recently launched $7 million venture capital fund designed to give a lift to early-stage auto tech companies.

Plus, Greenfield talks about the areas of the auto tech with the most growth potentials, U.S. markets emerging as hot spots in this space, trends in M&A and automotive buy-sell, and much more.

To hear 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 closes inaugural fund

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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 I, highlighting greater successes than originally planned.

“Fundraising during a global pandemic had its challenges, but I’m pleased to report that the fund was oversubscribed with more than $7 million in committed capital that we’re eager to deploy into early-stage automotive tech companies,” Greenfield said in a news release.

“Despite only kicking off the fundraise in the latter half of 2020, the motivation to launch a fund has been building for far longer,” he continued. “We’ve witnessed a shortage of institutional capital for early-stage auto tech companies for decades and believe that we are now uniquely positioned to provide these funds, as well as deep automotive expertise and connections, to early-stage entrepreneurs when they need it most.”

Greenfield mentioned that even though Automotive Ventures officially announced the launch of its fund on Tuesday, the company has been actively investing since its first closed in December and named the following companies within its current portfolio:

— Algodriven
— Car Capital
— HopDrive
— RoboTire
— SparkCharge
— WarrCloud

“It’s an interesting time to be in the automotive space, to say the least,” Automotive Ventures senior venture associate Justin Charbonneau said. “We believe the industry is at an inflection point and on the cusp of massive change.

“We are excited and humbled to play a small part to help usher in the next wave of technological innovation in the industry by funding the founders who are building transformational automotive technology companies,” Charbonneau went on to say.

Greenfield touched on another element connected with this week’s announcement while looking forward, too.

“We’re proudly located in Atlanta, Georgia and love meeting founders in our backyard,” he said. “That said, in terms of our investment strategy, we plan to be geographically agnostic and will look at deals worldwide, although we anticipate that most of our investments will be made in U.S.-based companies.”

Toyota venture capital firm to rebrand; make new $300M investment

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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 and the Toyota Ventures Climate Fund — adds another $150 million each to the pot. 

"At Toyota, we're taking a diverse science-driven approach to addressing climate change and offering people many ways to lower their own carbon footprint," said Gill Pratt, chief scientist of Toyota Motor Corporation, CEO of Toyota Research Institute and board member of Toyota Ventures, in a press release. "Part of our strategy includes partnering with talented entrepreneurs from around the world to help accelerate innovation in the startup community. We are tremendously excited about tapping into that talent through the Climate Fund."

The firm noted the new brand and additional capital "are a reflection of the firm's broadening scope and Toyota's commitment to partnering with talented entrepreneurs to bring innovative technologies and business models to market."

Providing a bit of background on the firm, it was launched in 2017 and has since invested in 38 companies in artificial intelligence, autonomy, cloud computing, data, mobility and robotics. 

Through the aforementioned Frontier Fund, Toyota Ventures will continue exploring those areas and will also expand the fund's thesis to include smart cities, digital health, financial technologies, materials and energy, the firm shared. 

On the carbon neutrality front, the Toyota brand has launched a new Climate Fund that the Toyota Ventures team will manage, and will focus on finding and funding early-stage startups that develop innovative solutions for carbon neutrality. 

"Startups are tackling the world's challenges, and at Toyota Ventures we want to open even more paths to investing in them," said Jim Adler, founding managing director of Toyota Ventures. "Since we started our first fund four years ago, we've been on a journey with our portfolio companies to discover what's next for Toyota and for the world. Today, we're thrilled to be embarking on the next leg of that journey with the Frontier and the Climate Funds."

Along with the expanding investment categories, Toyota Ventures will also be growing its own team to provide the best support possible to its new ventures. 

 

Crestview Partners invests in AutoLenders with goal of becoming ‘nationwide leader’

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An independent dealership group in business since 1979 just received a majority investment from a value-oriented private equity firm focused on the middle market that manages funds with more than $9 billion of aggregate capital commitments.

On Monday, Crestview Partners announced its investment in AutoLenders, which is headquartered in Berlin, N.J., generating approximately $700 million in annual revenues. 

With Crestview’s investment and support, AutoLenders said that it expects to continue to expand its operations throughout the East Coast as the next step toward becoming a “nationwide leader.” AutoLenders already has seven rooftops in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Like many public dealer group and large retailers, AutoLenders utilizes an omnichannel platform for buying and selling, allowing its customers to choose between or combine online and in-store shopping experiences. Not only does AutoLenders book leases with super-prime customers, the company said it often retails those off-lease units while leveraging other inventory acquisition options without solely depending on auctions.

“Our strategy has always been for AutoLenders to provide market-leading service and innovative products to our customers,” AutoLenders founder and chief executive officer Mike Wimmer said in a news release.

“By creating a data-driven and customer-centric business, AutoLenders has been able to expand at multiples of the industry growth rate and become a leading player in our geographies,” Wimmer continued.

“We are now at the point where we want to take advantage of the favorable market trends for the automotive retail industry and continue to grow throughout the East Coast with the ultimate goal of becoming a nationwide leader in the fast-evolving previously owned vehicle market,” Wimmer added.

“We are extremely pleased to be partnering with Crestview on this next step of the company’s journey. They are experienced investors with a history of backing businesses poised for growth beyond their core geographies,” Wimmer went on to say.

Dan Kilpatrick is partner and head of financial services at Crestview. Kilpatrick explained why the firm is teaming with AutoLenders.

“AutoLenders sits at the intersection of many of Crestview’s investments across the automotive landscape, in specialty finance companies and behind businesses with rapid dealership expansion strategies,” Kilpatrick said.

“As we have gotten to know the company, it has become clear that the team at AutoLenders is set to thrive in an increasingly digital and dynamic automotive marketplace.,” Kilpatrick continued. “By leveraging proprietary data analytics, coupled with decades of experience from every vantagepoint of automotive retail, AutoLenders is able to nimbly target the right vehicles to profitably finance, buy and sell.”

Crestview partner and co-president Alex Rose also sees AutoLenders being poised for growth.

“Mike and Brad Wimmer and the rest of the AutoLenders team have built a platform which we believe is uniquely positioned to benefit from several favorable tailwinds across this large and resilient, but still highly fragmented market,” Rose said.

“The used-car industry is ripe for disruption and while there are many exciting business models pursuing this opportunity, AutoLenders has built a differentiated business model with advantages which are exceedingly difficult to replicate, positioning it for long-term success,” Rose went on to say.

AutoLenders was advised by UBS Investment Bank and Mayer Brown LLP.  Crestview was advised by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.

Spiffy’s first franchise location opens in Delaware

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After announcing its first batch of franchisees last month, Spiffy has officially opened its first franchise location.

The debut franchise for Spiffy, an on-demand car care, technology, and services company, is in Wilmington, Del.

The franchise will provide mobile maintenance services to Upper Chesapeake-area customers.

Rick Crook is the owner of Spiffy’s first franchise, and he brings more than 15 years of aviation experience as an aircraft mechanic and, more recently, a first officer for Air Transport International. During his search for the right local business opportunity, his past experience as an owner-operator for Signal 88 Security brought him back into franchising.

Crook said Spiffy stood out with its use of proprietary technology, eco-conscious business standards, a convenience-oriented service model, and the company’s history of sustained growth.

Over the last seven years, Spiffy has expanded from offering mobile car wash and detai services to various preventive maintenance services for car owners and national fleet clients. The company says it offers a zero-friction experience directly to each customer in a recognizable blue van. The van features the water, power, and supplies needed to complete every appointment.

On the eco-conscious side, Spiffy said each service uses less than half the water of a traditional car wash. All water, soap, and chemicals are reclaimed and recycled for future use.

Regarding the company’s first franchise location, Spiffy chief executive officer Scot Wingo said the company was happy to open the doors with a franchisee to bring mobile car care to Upper Chesapeake area residents.

“Rick is a skilled business leader who’s passionate about our company values, especially given his veteran background. He brings a fresh excitement to our entire operation,” Wingo said in a news release.

Crook said Spiffy wants to create an eco-focused service, and he said the service takes the hassle and wasted time out of car care.

“It’s easy for me to be confident as a franchise owner because they aren't just a franchisor; they also own and operate 23 other locations,” Crook said. “They’ve learned years of lessons, last year in particular, and aren’t leaving their franchisees in the dark about how to run the business successfully.”

ACV hits ‘massive momentum moment’ with Wednesday’s IPO

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ACV Auctions is now a publicly traded company.

The online wholesale auto marketplace launched its initial public offering Wednesday on Nasdaq, with chief executive officer George Chamoun ringing the opening bell.

Auto Remarketing caught up with Chamoun on Wednesday afternoon to talk about the IPO and what ACV has planned next.

“When I was looking around the room, all of my partners and teammates all had these really big smiles,” he said of the opening bell ceremony. “And what was going through my mind is just, 'This is going to be really a massive momentum moment.'

“We've done amazing things,” Chamoun added. “We're still young. But this is a rather big moment for the company. And when you think about going forward, I look at today as momentum in so many ways: Momentum in having capital to grow, momentum in being able to hire additional, really unbelievable teammates, (and) momentum for my current teammates.”

ACV said Tuesday that it priced its 16.55 million Class A common stock shares in the offering at $25 per share. The shares opened trading Wednesday on Nasdaq at $32/share, reaching a high of $34.50, a low of $29 and closing the day at $31.25.

That's up 25%, or 6.25 points, from the prior close of $25.

The offering is expected to close Friday.

Opportunities ahead

When asked what opportunities may come from the IPO and some of the next steps, Chamoun boiled it down to three areas.

First is increasing employee headcount to drive geographic expansion.

"One is additional expansion of our territories and hiring inspector teammates across the country. So that's just increasing our expansion here in the U.S. from 125 territories to 160 plus, hiring more and more inspectors across the country so we can get to every dealership and any consumer's driveway on behalf of our dealer and commercial partners,” Chamoun said.

Next on the list is further expanding ACV’s product, technology and R&D.

Chamoun points to the S-1 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and said it indicates, “we're increasing our spend by 150%.”

He added: “We've already created pretty amazing things for the industry like AMP — Audio Motor Profile — Virtual Lift and extraordinary marketplace capabilities. We'll now have the resources to invent even more."

The third involves the potential expansion of ACV’s capabilities.

In April of last year, ACV purchased ASI, which was previously part of SGS Transportation Services in the U.S. ASI provides a variety of inspection services to the auto industry — including off-lease, which was said at the time of the purchase would be a major piece of its work with ACV.

That 2020 purchase followed ACV acquisition of TrueFrame in December 2019, a move that added retail inspections to ACV’s offerings. TrueFrame provides True360 vehicle inspections, which aim to provide dealers and consumers more context when they’re buying used vehicles

With the IPO, ACV has “both cash and stock currency” to continue broadening its capabilities, Chamoun said.

 ACV can now, “Expand what we're doing even more; we've got the cash, we've got the currency to add to our capabilities,” he said.

In the “Use of Proceeds” section of its S-1/A filed with the SEC, ACV said: “The principal purposes of this offering are to increase our capitalization and financial flexibility, create a public market for our Class A common stock and facilitate our future access to the capital markets. As of the date of this prospectus, we cannot specify with certainty all of the particular uses for the net proceeds we receive from this offering.

“However, we currently intend to use the net proceeds we receive from this offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital, operating expenses and capital expenditures,” the company said. “We may also use a portion of the net proceeds we receive from this offering to acquire complementary businesses, products, services or technologies. However, we do not have agreements or commitments to enter into any material acquisitions at this time.

“We will have broad discretion over how to use the net proceeds we receive from this offering. We intend to invest the net proceeds we receive from this offering that are not used as described above in investment-grade, interest-bearing instruments.”

Public markets add used-car players

ACV is at least the fourth company in the used-car space to go public in the past year. Online auto retailer Vroom went public through an IPO in June, while rival Shift and retail remarketing platform CarLotz subsequently went public through respective mergers with special purpose acquisition companies.

So, what does this kind of activity tell Chamoun about the used-car space?

“I think it's massive," Chamoun said. "When you look across other industries, other sectors, we're in one of the largest sectors, one of the largest market opportunities. 

“Consumers are buying 40 million cars a year, whether buying it from a dealer or another consumer,” he said. “And then wholesale in and of itself is a massive opportunity. So, when you look at how we fit into that ecosystem … we're here to help dealers compete in the digital world, with our auctions product, helping them buy and sell in wholesale. And True360, helping them retail, helping them promote their ecommerce business. 

“The dealers continue to shift to digital. We're here to help them. And the industry's massive. So, I think you're just seeing (that) partially that's reflective of how big this industry is.”

 

 

 

 

Spiffy lands first 5 franchise partners, reaching 7 new markets

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Spiffy’s value proposition not only is attracting individual consumers and fleet operators for on-demand car care, but investors and entrepreneurs looking to become franchisees are attracted to the technology and services company, too.

On Tuesday, Spiffy announced its first batch of franchisees who are adding seven new cities to its growing footprint throughout the United States. The franchisee locations are in Delaware, Ohio, California, South Carolina and North Carolina.

In addition to the 22 existing locations owned and operated by Spiffy, the first five franchise partners are expanding mobile maintenance services to these seven new markets:

• Wilmington, Del.
• San Jose, Calif.
• Cincinnati
• Greenville, S.C.
• Columbia, S.C.
• Charleston, S.C.
• Greensboro, N.C. and Winston-Salem, N.C.

According to a news release, Spiffy’s Delaware franchise operating out of Wilmington is the first to launch standard services for fleets, including preventative maintenance, cleaning and disinfection. The company said consumer services will go live in the coming weeks.

Spiffy indicated the San Jose franchise is gearing up for its launch in April, while the other three are signed and looking ahead to second-quarter openings.

Spiffy highlighted that Rick Crook, franchise owner in the Upper Chesapeake Bay area, was looking for the right local business opportunity to settle into after a long aviation career. After searching for months, Crook indicated his experience as an owner-operator for a security company brought him back into franchising, which led him to Spiffy.

“The key difference between Spiffy and my previous franchise experience is corporate structure and support. It’s much easier for me to feel confident in joining a business that has jumped over hurdles and learned to avoid pitfalls,” Crook said in the news release. “At the end of the day, I know my best interests as a franchise are the same for Spiffy as a whole.”

Meanwhile, Brian and Bethany Hinson view themselves as Spiffy’s target customers. With three young kids, the couple said services like Amazon Prime and Instacart have played a prominent role in reclaiming more time in their day.

As Cincinnati natives, Spiffy noted that the Hinsons recognized a need in the market for a professional mobile car care service but felt hindered by a lack of infrastructure and experience. They first inquired about franchising with Spiffy two years ago, nearly a year and a half before opportunities were made available.

Spiffy added that the itch to own a franchise led to the couple back at the end of last year and the Hinsons jumped right into the sales process.

“As parents, Brian and I understand the importance of finding time where you can. That’s primarily what put Spiffy on our radar back in 2019,” said Bethany Hinson, co-owner of the Cincinnati franchise.

“From a business perspective, we believe in the Spiffy service model from the top down,” she continued in the news release. “We want to provide a convenient car care solution that appeals to others with hectic schedules like us, along with a dedication to eco-friendly practices.”

Spiffy explained its geographic expansion is two-fold, or what the company called a hybrid approach. It includes:

• Owned-and-operated: Spiffy will continue to add non-franchise markets in the top 50 largest U.S. cities.

• Franchise: Spiffy continues to welcome franchisees to its growing list of markets, with hundreds of opportunities available in the U.S.

“When we announced our franchising model last year, we felt confident that our commitment to convenient customer service, multiple service offerings, and eco-conscious standards would attract people passionate about the Spiffy brand,” Spiffy chief executive officer Scot Wingo said. “I’m excited to welcome our first five franchise partners.

The first five represent a broad spectrum of experienced business owners with backgrounds spanning automotive finance, tech angel investing, aviation, and other franchises, which really validates our business model and makes us even more excited about the momentum we’ve built bringing mobile vehicle care to fleets and individuals nationwide,” Wingo went on to say.

If you’re interested in learning more about owning a Spiffy franchise, visit www.getspiffy.com/franchise.

DealerPolicy announces $30M Series B funding, appoints president/COO & SVP of sales

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DealerPolicy announced a $30 million round of Series B funding on Tuesday, which the company plans to use for developing its insurance marketplace serving the auto retail business as well as expanding its team.

The latter includes the addition of a president and chief operating as well as a senior vice president of sales.

Named president and COO is former Dealer.com vice president and general manager Wayne Pastore, while the new senior VP of sales is Tara Kasica, who was most recently with Allstate.

The funding was led by 3L Capital and Hudson Structured Capital Management Ltd. 

“As car buying continues to evolve with the world around us, dealers are prioritizing fully digital, streamlined and connected experiences. Modern insurance solutions such as DealerPolicy’s FastPass dovetail nicely into the process and give car-buyers the value and convenience they’ve come to expect,” DealerPolicy chief executive officer Travis Fitzgerald said in a news release. “DealerPolicy has conducted extensive research into car-buyer sentiments, including access to insurance as part of the process.

“The results are undeniable — nearly eight out of 10 shoppers believe that comparing insurance at the point of sale during the car-buying process substantially improves the experience,” he said. “With an ever-expanding value proposition to dealers, insurance carriers and customers, we are prepared to continue investing in growth.”

As far as the new executives, both have already joined the company. In addition to his leadership at Dealer.com before joining DealerPolicy, Pastore held additional leadership posts at Cox Automotive and Dealertrack.

“I admire the early success the DealerPolicy team has had and the meaningful value its platform provides for both shoppers and dealers,” Pastore said. “With shoppers’ continued desire to complete more of the purchasing experience digitally, I look forward to leveraging my experience to help accelerate the company’s growth as dealers continue to demand fully integrated and digital retailing services.”

At Allstate, Kasica oversaw activities around dealership-owned insurance agencies.

“Spending much of my career in various insurance and automotive leadership roles, I immediately recognized the value of DealerPolicy’s offering to the market, and dealerships in particular,” Kasica said. “I am thrilled to be joining this incredible team and to use my experience at the intersection of P&C insurance and automotive retail to further support the company’s expansion plans.”

Investment roundup: Porsche for digital platform; seed funding for transport start-up

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Wall Street news updates recently are filled with discussions about how social media triggered significant spikes in a couple of particular stocks.

However, investment in the automotive industry continues to chug along with two developments involving a luxury OEM and a start-up in the vehicle-transport space.

On Friday, Porsche Ventures announced that it has completed an investment in Cresta, a real-time intelligence company for customer conversations that specializes in messaging and voice communication.

And earlier in the week, Social Auto Transport, Inc., a gig economy platform that strives to help dealerships and other automotive companies efficiently move vehicles, announced the closing of its $1.5 million seed funding round.

Social Auto Transport is looking to provide assistance, especially for stores engaged in digital retailing with deliveries culminating someplace else other than the showroom. Founded in 2018, the firm want to help dealerships avoid hassle and decrease the cost of moving vehicles short distances.

The company’s flagship product lets dealers offer on-demand service pickup and delivery to a customer’s home or office, without the expense of hiring, training and insuring their own staff.

Social Auto Transport said its dealer customers are seeing a significant increase in the average size of repair orders, stemming from the additional time they get to thoroughly diagnose and repair issues without keeping customers waiting in the dealership.

“Working together in the automotive and logistics spaces over the last decade, (co-founder and chief technology officer Rob Newton) and I witnessed firsthand the many inefficiencies in the short-haul transportation of cars,” Social Auto Transport co-founder and chief executive officer Nick Mottas said in a news release.

“We built Social Auto to make short-distance car moves quick, easy and affordable for dealers, repair shops and fleet operators,” Mottas continued. “Our customers love the convenience of our on-demand, turnkey model, and they consistently benefit from a revenue increase when using our platform.”

Social Auto Transport currently operates in the Richmond, Va., and Charlotte, N.C., markets and will use the seed funding to rapidly expand across the U.S., beginning now in Philadelphia and in Atlanta in February.

Following these two launches, Social Auto Transport said will launch in four additional cities over the next two quarters.

According to the news release, the seed funding round was led by Overline, an Atlanta-based seed-stage venture capital firm that focuses on startups in the Southeast. Michael Cohn and Sean O’Brien are managing partners of Overline. Each one offered their perspectives on the investment decision and Social Auto Transport’s value proposition.

Cohn said, “We are thrilled to partner with the Social Auto team. We see tremendous opportunity to build a nationwide network for moving cars short distances with highly trained, licensed and insured gig economy drivers. With consumer interest in concierge service offerings increasing dramatically as a result of COVID, we see at-home pickup and delivery quickly moving from a competitive advantage for early-adopter dealers to a competitive must-have.”

O’Brien said: “We continue to see tremendous innovation and opportunity in the automotive and logistics industries, which are key focus areas for our fund. We love the value that Social Auto provides to all of its stakeholders, including their dealer customers and consumers, as well as their drivers, who make more on average than when driving for traditional gig platforms — with the added security of a more predictable wage. There are also significant driver benefits that come from moving cars instead of people, which we believe make Social Auto an attractive option for drivers that are uncomfortable transporting strangers and putting significant mileage on their personal cars.”

Other investors in Social Auto Transport include Automotive Ventures, Estes Express Lines and Kevin Nolan, founder of Nolan Transportation Group and OTR Capital.

Newton reiterated what the new funding means for Social Auto Transport’s future.

“This seed fundraise is wholly focused on helping us push toward new market expansion and penetration,” Newton said. “When assessing the viability of a market, we look at factors like number of potential customers and need for our service. Both large, logistically-complicated cities, Philadelphia and Atlanta emerged as high target markets for this next phase of our growth.

“We know that once we get our feet on the ground, our end-to-end turnkey service will become invaluable to local dealers and help us penetrate these cities,” he went on to say.

Dealers interested in Social Auto services can learn at www.socialautotransport.com/dealers-overview.

Porsche investment in Cresta

Porsche is certainly accelerating its relationship with Cresta based on the details shared in a news release.

Alongside the investment, the companies said Cresta’s software will be rolled out across the online platforms of Porsche Cars North America (PCNA) and Porsche Financial Services (PFS) to create an OEM-wide network that will enhance the customer support experience.

“Porsche and Cresta are a great fit, and more importantly, the solution will directly benefit our customers,” said Stephan Baral, head of Porsche Ventures Region USA.

“The rollout of Cresta’s software in our digital ecosystem will be a notable change, and the nature of their (artificial intelligence) engines mean the customer experience will only continue to improve,” Baral continued. “Being their first automotive partner will allow us to support the Cresta team with further growth in our industry.”

The automaker indicated the first area to receive a Cresta-powered AI update will be Porsche Connect, a comprehensive suite of services and apps that supports the features of Porsche vehicles.

The company explained a typical use case would be planning a long journey in the all-electric Taycan through the Charging Planner to calculate the fastest route, including the required charging stops. Perhaps the driver has a question, such as “How do I activate free charging at Electrify America stations?” Porsche said drives will be able to benefit from a new chat function expected to launch in Porsche Connect on smartphones and laptops later this year.

This capability will ensure immediate response and, if necessary, assistance by a service representative, according to Porsche.

Further rollout is in the planning stages to streamline communications across PCNA touchpoints, from discovering your dream car in the Porsche Finder search portal to asking about the details of a current vehicle contract with Porsche Financial Services.

“This partnership happened because of the vision and hard work of the Porsche Ventures team. This is a great opportunity to realize that vision and to prove Cresta’s technology with one of the most prestigious, high-performance automotive brands in the world,” said Zayd Enam, chief executive officer and co-founder of Cresta.

Enam continued with, “2020 accelerated digital transformation across every industry, led by an overwhelming surge in digital interactions. Cresta enables brands to make the most of and learn from every customer conversation in this fast-changing world.”

Enam went on to mention that Cresta’s solution can handle inquiries independently and also connect customers with representatives when needed.

Furthermore, he added that Cresta can improve the help provided by customer service personnel who are offered real-time coaching and automated assistance as they interact with customers.

Internal research has shown that Porsche owners expect digital options to connect with the company, including online chat, which is also in demand by dealers.

Porsche Ventures engages with top entrepreneurs across the globe using regional investment teams.

“Through its global presence with different locations in key technology ecosystems, Porsche Ventures is an active part of the international digital scene and extremely well networked,” the company said. “This enables promising startups to be identified worldwide at an early stage.”

PODCAST: Tyler Hall of Drivably talks Porsche Ventures investment & more

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In this episode of the Auto Remarketing Podcast, Drivably chief executive officer Tyler Hall is back on the show to talk about the company's investment from Porsche Ventures, Drivably's growth in the past year and its expansion plans.

Plus, he explains why the private-party market is such an important area for dealers to tap into.

To listen to the entire 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

 

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