Tesla veteran Jay Vijayan's startup Tekion secures $200 million funding

Automotive software platform gets backing of Dragoneer Investment Group at a valuation of $4 billion

Tekion, an automotive software platform founded by former Tesla executive Jay Vijayan, has secured $200 million in growth equity capital from Dragoneer Investment Group, it said on Tuesday.

This financing round set Tekion’s valuation at more than $4 billion from the previous $3.5 billion. Tekion will use the capital to expand its product offering for dealer partners and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), speed up implementation timelines, and strengthen customer support.

“Tekion has charted an extraordinary growth path, revolutionising the automotive retail industry through our comprehensive and fully integrated platform,” said Jay Vijayan, founder and chief executive officer of Tekion. “Dragoneer’s team has followed our progress closely for multiple years, believes in our long-term vision, and carries an impressive track record investing in best-in-class vertical SaaS (software-as-a-service) businesses.”

Tekion is headquartered in Pleasanton, United States; its Asia–Pacific office is in Bengaluru and it has a regional centre in Chennai.

Tekion in 2023 had a 97 per cent year-on-year run rate revenue growth and expanded its partnerships to more than 2,000 automotive retailers, multiple leading-brand OEMs, and over 250 ecosystem technology partners. Tekion, which was founded in 2016, said it has an “industry-leading” Cloud platform and is rapidly gaining new customers. The firm said the recent addition of seasoned executives to its leadership team, including the chief financial officer, chief revenue officer, and chief technology officer, marks its “market momentum” and investments for growth.

“Tekion has built a market-defining platform with proven scalability in one of the largest and most complex industry verticals,” said Christian Jensen, partner at Dragoneer. “We see incredible opportunity ahead as automotive customers increasingly seek frictionless, digital-first experiences and automotive retailers seek competitive advantages, business efficiencies, and deep insights from powerful new technologies.”