Another round of funding that included an Asian automaker and several dealer groups across the United States drove Tekion’s valuation to $3.5 billion, according to a news release distributed on Tuesday.

The valuation arrived as Tekion — innovator of the Automotive Retail Cloud (ARC) — announced a Series D financing round of $250 million, led by Alkeon Capital and co-led by Durable Capital. Other investors included those previously mentioned dealerships as well as Hyundai Motor Co.

The announcement also mentioned that Advent International, who led Tekion’s Series C, Index Ventures who led its Series A, and FM Capital also reinvested in this round. Tekion said those investors are showing strong support for the positive disruption the startup is bringing to the automotive industry and, as a result, rapidly growing business. 

Tekion plans to invest its additional capital in the following areas:

— Accelerate ARC platform rollout to dealers across the U.S. and globally

— Set up a customer experience center and expand product innovation hubs in Pleasanton, Calif., and Austin, Texas, focusing on continuous product innovation

— Expand 24/7 support capabilities with a key initiative in-progress: an automotive support center of excellence in West Chester, Ohio

— Rapidly extend OEM partnerships, open API platform capabilities and create a seamless partner ecosystem

“Tekion is turbo-charging the automotive industry by offering an end-to-end, next-generation technology software platform for both car dealers and automotive manufacturers, which provides a rich and unified consumer experience,” Alkeon Capital general partner Deepak Ravichandran said in the news release. “Founder Jay Vijayan has built a strong team to steer his ambitious product roadmap and we are thrilled to be partnering with him on his new journey.

“Tekion is experiencing strong tailwinds in a large, multi-billion-dollar market including cloud adoption for online retailing, connected vehicles, increased consumer expectations for seamless, digital car purchasing experiences and digital vehicle connectivity,” Ravichandran continued. “By building a single, unified cloud platform for manufacturers and dealers, Tekion is also unlocking multiple new markets heretofore unavailable to legacy incumbents limited by archaic technology architecture.

“We believe Tekion is just getting revved up for its multi-year journey in redefining an industry and becoming the market’s leading and dominant player,” Ravichandran went on to say.

Tekion explained that its Automotive Retail Cloud is designed to provide much more than a typical dealer management system (DMS) by modernizing the end-to-end automotive retail journey and transforming the sales and service experiences to suit modern consumer needs.

ARC can enable seamless consumer engagement and the highest level of operational efficiencies with its cutting-edge platform built with IoT, Machine Learning and AI at its core.

With this new round of Series D funding, Tekion said it is well-positioned to continue its unprecedented growth and market penetration.

Here are the assessments of two other firms involved in that funding.

“We’re impressed by Tekion’s talented team of innovators who have transformed the automotive retail market with a game-changing platform dedicated to delivering the best dealer and retail experiences. Tekion is disrupting the industry with its cutting-edge cloud-based platform, and we believe in the company’s capacity for value creation and exponential long-term growth through scalability,” said Henry Ellenbogen, chief investment officer of Durable Capital Partners.

“Hyundai and Genesis are excited about this strategic investment and partnership with Tekion. Together, we are poised not only to embrace the future but chase it. Tekion’s cloud-native ARC solution will drive performance and agility into dealer operations and customer experience. Our shared efforts will provide even better data quality, integrity and digital experiences for our dealers and their customers,” said Manish Mehrotra, executive director of digital business planning and connected operations at Hyundai Motor North America.

Vijayan also expressed what the newest funding means for Tekion’s future.

“We are very thankful for the trust and incredible support from our dealer, OEM partners and investors who continue to believe in our mission and our capability to execute. We have experienced phenomenal market acceptance during the past year,” Vijayan said.

“This strong round of funding validates industry and investors’ belief in Tekion’s disruption and our exceptional team of innovators. Our investors know that we’re future-driven, and they want to be part of our remarkable story,” he went on to say.