The Daily Download: Tekion Raises $250 Million

Steve Greenfield of Automotive Ventures highlights the technology deals of the day in this segment of the Daily Download.

Automotive Ventures is the resource for automotive technology entrepreneurs and financial and strategic acquirers. The company, founded in 2014, offers fundraising, growth strategy, and transaction guidance.

Big news this week in the dealership software space!

Tekion, the software startup attacking the DMS space, has announced a $250 million dollar Series D financing that bumps its valuation to $3.5 billion dollars today, up from just $1 billion dollars a year ago.

Investors have VERY high expectations of this company, as it attacks the two incumbent DMS providers, CDK Global and Reynolds & Reynolds. So far, Tekion has raised a total of $435 million. Alkeon Capital and Durable Capital co-led the round. Other investors include Hyundai Motor Company, several dealer groups across the U.S., and earlier backers Advent International, Index Ventures and FM Capital.

Tekion’s plan is to lead car dealers into the 21st century with a contemporary end-to-end automotive SaaS platform. Customers could use it to order a car to their precise specifications; dealers could use it to see in real time to understand their inventory and seamlessly check in customers for service appointments; OEMs could use it to see exactly which of their parts were where, relative to said dealerships.

Tekion, has gained meaningful traction over the past year, growing revenue threefold, despite Covid and the vehicle inventory shortage. The number of states where dealers are using Tekion’s software has grown to 39 from 28; and the company just began working with its first dealership in Canada as part of a plan to become international.

Congratulations to Tekion founder and CEO Jay Vijayan and the whole Tekion team. I expect that investments and M&A in the dealership software space will continue to be active in the coming months.