DriveCentric CRM was acquired for more than $1.4B

[Alex Snyder]

According to Cliff Banks, DriveCentric CRM sold to private equity for an amazing amount.

North of $1.4 Billion!!!!

Congrats to the DriveCentric team for pulling that one off. That would take the record for automotive CRM solution valuations. It blows the doors off the eLead number... and that was no joke either. Because this was a private sale, we can only run on what Cliff told us on our final RefreshFriday of 2024, which you can catch here:

 

[BillVaughnKMC]

Private equity? Yuck. Love DC, but this usually means the beginning of the end.

 

[Dan Sayer]

Private equity? Yuck. Love DC, but this usually means the beginning of the end.

I have no great feelings about this. Anxiety. Although, happy for Steve and founders.

 

[BillVaughnKMC]

I have no good feelings about this. Although, happy for Steve and founders.

True that.

 

[Jon Singo]

Great for the team getting paid but a $1.4bil price tag spells the end for them as a useful company.

Anyone know what their market share was? Makes me wonder what other CRM valuations look like.

 

[BillVaughnKMC]

Anyone know what their market share was?

I'm honestly not sure, but I know they've been booming. Seems like about every person I talk to now uses them or is thinking about it.

 

[joe.pistell]

wait till they IPO JD Power. Data is AI's Plutonium.
IMO, MarketCheck gets swallowed up prior to IPO (they want NeoVIN).

 

[Alex Snyder]

Anyone know what their market share was? Makes me wonder what other CRM valuations look like.

Last I heard they were around the 2,000 rooftop mark. However, they're getting up to $10,000/mo. for installs over the past few years. The product margin is insane! The growth rate and margins are what drove the valuation.

In comparison, eLead was getting around $2,500/mo. with significantly more rooftops than DriveCentric. Even though eLead had strong growth and consistent sales, they were no longer exploding when they sold to CDK. I think that was acquisition was for $500M with potential for more.

Don't take any of the numbers I'm throwing out here to the bank. I'm running off of what I've heard.

 

[AlexCaradonna]

I'm late to watching this one, but hypothetically could VW sell the Scout brand to Rivian for $1 and then restructure their strategic partnership with Rivian so they aren't in breach of franchise laws while having the companies operate as separate entities under Rivian's "ownership"..?

 

[Chris Cachor]

wait till they IPO JD Power. Data is AI's Plutonium. IMO, MarketCheck gets swallowed up prior to IPO (they want NeoVIN).

Is NeoVIN an amalgamation of data sources (feeds and scraped data) to return enhanced VIN decoded data? I see on the docs of their website they partner with other VIN providers, but I don't see how their NeoVIN is different from their Enhanced VIN. Interesting data source for sure, though. Being able to get highlighted features along with specific cab length, etc. in one shot is really nice. Their pricing is confusing, though.