As per Bloomberg news, Tekion’s new valuation tripled to $3.5 billion after fresh investments. The automotive software provider has raised $250 million from investors, including Alkeon Capital Management LLC and Durable Capital Partners.
Existing investors Index Ventures and Advent International and new investor Hyundai Motor were also a part of this new investment. In an interview, CEO Jay Vijayan said, “This investment will put Tekion in a strong position and accelerate growth. The funding is a major validation for the business model“.
California-based Tekion plans to add large Recreation vehicles and boats to the platform. It is now set to expand internationally and domestically, starting first with France in 2022 QTR2, followed by U.K. and Germany as per Vijayan.
Tekion was founded in 2016 as a start-up to cater to consumers in the automobile industry. The platform enabled auto manufacturers and retailers to sell and service cars on the platform while cutting down consumers’ grueling amounts of time at dealerships. Vijayan is a former executive at Tesla Inc., famous for selling EV’s directly to customers.
Durable Capital Partners CEO Henry Ellenbogen said, “With automobile retailing changing the way it is operated now, we think that Tekion has excellent potential to build a large platform for automobiles.
Tekions disruption opportunity is compared to Toast Inc, a restaurant software provider which Ellenbogen had backed in 2018 during his tenor with investor T. Rowe Price. He is of the view that car manufacturers and their dealers need to change the way they 2018 during are interacting with the customers. Toast Inc. went public in September 2021 and now has a market capitalization of $ 26 billion. This is quite substantial compared to the $1.4 billion valuations it had in 2018 when investor T. Rowe took the exposure.
In an emailed statement, Manish Mehrotra, Executive Director at Hyundai motors North America, said,” we are poised to embrace and chase the future jointly.” Referring to Hyundai’s upscale brand, he said Hyundai is excited about the strategic partnership and investment in Tekion.
In an emailed statement, Deepak Ravichandran, general partner of Alkeon, said,” Legacy incumbents and archaic technology serve auto industry. Tekion is all set to change that.“
Tekion was valued at around $1 billion in October last year when it raised funds from Index Ventures, Airbus Ventures, Advent and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and Ferrari holding company Exor.
Tekion facilitates orders from General Motors online. Its earlier investors were GM, BMW, Nissan, and Mitsubishi.
