Carketa — DealerRefresh Vendor Library

Here is the fully sourced brief, ready for your sales team: --- ## Company Research — Carketa ### About Carketa Founded by Jason Berry and Brady Thurgood, Carketa helps dealerships buy, manage, service, and sell inventory faster and for more profit, while also enabling finance, insurance, lending, warranty, and other related companies to better target and interact with dealers who fit their business models. The company was founded in 2018 and built by dealers looking for better reconditioning and inspection software to improve their own dealership. Headquartered at 3400 N Ashton Blvd Ste 450, Lehi, Utah, Carketa is a privately held automotive technology SaaS company with approximately 35 employees as of March 2026. The company has raised a total of $11.8M across 4 funding rounds to date, most recently closing a $4.4M early growth round led by Capital Eleven, with participation from Crosslink Capital, Origin Ventures, Allegis Capital, and Peak Ventures. --- ### What They Do Carketa is the dealership decision intelligence system that helps automotive dealers turn inventory faster with better visibility. Core products and capabilities include: - **Reconditioning Management:** Dealers recondition their way and streamline each step of the process, with automated handoffs to move vehicles swiftly from shop to body work to detailing to front-line ready. - **Appraisals & Pricing:** Dealers can appraise vehicles on-site or online; Carketa's live market data automatically populates comparable vehicles to help determine offers based on real listings in the local area. - **AI-Infused Buy Suite:** Carketa's Buy Suite helps dealers know what inventory to acquire, where to find it, and how much to pay for it. More than 1,000 dealerships adopted the Buy Suite tools and data services since its release from beta. - **Dealer Analytics:** Compares inventory against local competitors to spot gaps and profit opportunities. - **Automotive Data API Suite:** Purpose-built for technology companies, lenders, and platform developers who need reliable, real-time automotive data integrated into their own solutions. Includes VIN decode, live dealer inventory from 60K+ rooftops, and wholesale vehicle valuations. - **Integrations:** Carketa offers seamless integration with Kelley Blue Book (KBB), J.D. Power, Manheim Market Report (MMR), Dealertrack, Dealer.com, DealerSocket, and DEALERCENTER. - **Key Partnerships:** Carketa announced a strategic partnership with ACERTUS, the largest automotive logistics-as-a-service platform, allowing dealer customers to streamline inventory acquisition with on-demand access to ACERTUS's carrier network to quote, book, ship, and track vehicles. Carketa also partners with Dominion DMS. - **Recent News:** Carketa closed a Series A round in November 2025. The company is also actively evaluating PPC advertising vendors and video advertising vendors to support growth efforts. --- ### DealerRefresh Audience Fit Carketa's entire product line is built for the exact persona that reads DealerRefresh daily — used car operators, GMs, and fixed ops directors focused on inventory turn, recon speed, and front-end gross. Over 1,000+ dealers rely on Carketa to sell faster, but the company is still in active growth mode and needs to reach the decision-makers who own the recon, sourcing, and pricing stack at the store level. **Why DealerRefresh works for Carketa:** - Carketa lets users have unlimited users on the platform so everyone in the dealership — from F&I to Sales to Techs to GMs — can have instant visibility into what's frontline ready and what's coming soon. The GM/dealer principal and fixed ops director are core buyers, and they are the DealerRefresh core audience. - Carketa competes directly with vAuto, Rapid Recon, and similar tools well-known to DealerRefresh readers — who are actively researching alternatives and new entrants. - Carketa is currently evaluating vendors to support video advertising efforts — making this a timely outreach for a Demo/Review Video placement. **Recommended DealerRefresh Products:** | Product | Fit | |---|---| | **Forum Banners** | High fit. Daily impressions to GMs, dealer principals, and used car directors — Carketa's exact buyer. Keeps the brand visible during competitive research. | | **Demo / Review Video** | Highest fit. Recon software and inventory intelligence are deeply operational — dealers need to *see* it work. Alex & Jeff's product deep-dive format demystifies the platform and reaches buyers mid-funnel