Tekion raises $250mn in Series D funding round; valuation nearly triples

The round was led by Alkeon Capital and co-led by Durable Capital. Other investors include Hyundai Motor and several reputable dealer groups across the US

Tekion, a cloud technology company focused on the automotive sector, raised $250 million in Series D financing round, driving Tekion’s valuation to over $3.5 billion. The company has almost tripled its valuation when compared to its last funding raised last year.

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 and Index Ventures who led Series A also reinvested in this round.

Silicon Valley-based Tekion, founded by Jay Vijayan and that has its APAC headquarters in Bengaluru, plans to invest its additional capital in accelerating its Automotive Retail Cloud (ARC) platform rollout to dealers globally, at present the product is available in the US and Canada. Tekion had raised $150 million in October 2020, post the fund raise the company had turned into a unicorn.

The company also intends to 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, and expansion in India. It also plans to extend OEM partnerships, open API platform capabilities and create a seamless partner ecosystem.

“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,” said Jay Vijayan, founder and CEO of Tekion.

“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,” said Deepak Ravichandran, General Partner at Alkeon Capital.

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 with its platform built with IoT, Machine Learning and AI as an inherent part of it.