<p><strong>PLEASANTON</strong> &#8212; Tekion, developer of the Automotive Retail Cloud (ARC) platform for car dealers, has landed a Series D financing round of $250 million, driving its valuation to $3.5 billion.</p>
<p>The funding round was led by Alkeon Capital and co-led by Durable Capital. Other investors include Hyundai Motor Company and several reputable dealer groups across the United States. Advent International, who led Tekion’s Series C, Index Ventures who led its Series A, and FM Capital also reinvested in this round, showing strong support for the positive disruption Tekion is bringing to the automotive industry and, as a result, rapidly growing business.</p>
<p>Tekion has over 1,000 employees. The company said it plans to invest its additional capital in the following areas:</p>
<ul class="bwlistdisc">
<li>Accelerate ARC platform rollout to dealers across the U.S. and globally</li>
<li>Set up a state-of-the-art Customer Experience Center and expand Product Innovation Hubs in Pleasanton, CA, and Austin, TX, focusing on continuous product innovation</li>
<li>Expand 24/7 support capabilities with a key initiative in-progress: a world-class Automotive Support Center of Excellence in West Chester, Ohio</li>
<li>Rapidly extend OEM partnerships, open API platform capabilities and create a seamless partner ecosystem</li>
</ul>
<p>“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. 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. 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,” said <b>Deepak Ravichandran, General Partner at Alkeon Capital.</b></p>
<p>“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<b> Henry Ellenbogen, Chief Investment Officer, Durable Capital Partners LP</b>.</p>
<p>“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<b> Manish Mehrotra,</b> <b>Executive Director, Digital Business Planning and Connected Operations of Hyundai Motor North</b> <b>America.</b></p>
<p>“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. 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,” <b>said Jay Vijayan, Founder and CEO of Tekion</b>.</p>
<p>Automotive Retail Cloud provides 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 enables 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 is well-positioned to continue its unprecedented growth and market penetration.</p>

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