Introduction

Tekion is an American technology company that helps people buy cars. Its platform uses artificial intelligence to support automotive dealerships and improve their operations. The company’s main office is in Pleasanton, California. It also has offices in Canada and the UK, as well as an Asia-Pacific headquarters in Bengaluru and a regional center in Chennai. Jay Vijayan, a former employee of Tesla, Inc., founded the company.

Historical Background

Before founding Tekion, Jay served as the chief information officer (CIO) at Tesla Inc., reporting directly to Tesla CEO Elon Musk. As Tesla’s CIO, Jay led the company’s technology and information systems. He left Tesla in 2016 to start Tekion, where he now serves as CEO. The company initially operated without funding from outside investors but later received investment from Index Ventures, Storm Ventures, Airbus Ventures, BMW i Ventures, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance Ventures, and General Motors. Tekion became a unicorn in October 2020 after raising $150 million in a Series C funding round. Advent International, Airbus Ventures, FM Capital, and existing investors led the round.

Current Agreement

Exor is the parent company of Stellantis, which owns brands including Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, Ram Trucks, Peugeot, Vauxhall, and Citroën. In October 2021, Tekion closed a Series D funding round and raised $250 million at a valuation of $3.5 billion. Alkeon Capital, Durable Capital, and Hyundai Motor Company led the funding round. In July 2023, the business acquired Five64, a company that developed technology for vehicle registrations.

Dragoneer Investment Group, a San Francisco-based investment company, invested $200 million in Tekion in July 2024. The investment valued the company at more than $4 billion. Since its founding, Tekion has raised a total of $640 million. By 2026, more than 3,000 car dealerships in North America and the UK used Tekion’s software systems.

Related Products

Followings are the related products of Tekion: –

Automotive Retail Cloud

Tekion launched its Automotive Retail Cloud (ARC) software in February 2020. The software helps connect automotive retail operations through a single cloud platform. Later, 52 car brands, including General Motors, Ford, Jeep, Honda, Hyundai, and Toyota, joined the platform.

Customer Relationship Management

The company added a customer relationship management (CRM) application to the ARC platform in 2022. In January 2024, Tekion reached an agreement with Asbury Automotive Group, a publicly traded US-based car dealership company. In 2025, Ken Garff Car Group and Hartwell Automotive Group used Tekion’s car retail platform across their store networks. Hartwell used the platform across all 11 of its dealerships in the UK.

Automotive Enterprise Cloud

Tekion also developed a digital tool for Acura and another digital tool for General Motors to help them sell electric vehicles. Both tools operate on the Automotive Enterprise Cloud (AEC) platform. 

Software as a Service (SaaS)

In 2024, Tekion announced plans to change its software platform from a Software as a Service (SaaS) model that runs in the cloud to an architecture focused on artificial intelligence. As part of this change, Tekion appointed Binu Mathew as chief technology officer.

Fast Company named Tekion one of the Best Workplaces for Innovators in 2025. The company also appeared on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 that year. Deloitte describes the list as an annual ranking of North America’s fastest-growing technology companies.

Taking Care of Customer Relationships

Managing relationships with customers is an important part of running an automotive dealership. Dealerships need accurate customer information because they interact with customers before, during, and after a vehicle purchase.

Tekion develops technology that helps dealerships track these interactions and maintain customer information. Sales and service teams can use customer information to understand how they helped customers in the past and provide better service in the future.

A dealership might need to know what type of car a customer owns, when the customer bought it, what work technicians have performed on it, and whether the customer has contacted the dealership before. A connected system can make it easier for authorized employees to access this information and use it when they communicate with customers.

Departments of Tekion and Automotive Service

Service departments generate significant revenue for many dealerships, which makes service management an important part of automotive software. Tekion provides tools that help businesses manage customer communications, employee processes, vehicle information, service schedules, and other service-related activities.

When a customer brings a vehicle to a shop for repairs or maintenance, several employees may need access to the same information. A digital platform that connects these processes can organize the work and prevent employees from entering the same information repeatedly into different systems. Service technology can also help employees communicate with customers about appointments, repair progress, recommendations, and vehicle pickup.

Keeping Track of Parts and Inventory

Auto dealerships must keep track of many vehicles and replacement parts. Dealerships need effective inventory management so they know which cars and parts are available, where they are located, and how employees use or sell them.

Tekion’s technology includes features that connect inventory information with other dealership activities. Digital tools can help parts teams manage parts-related activities, while information about vehicles in stock can support sales and customer communications. Bringing inventory information together with sales and service operations gives dealers a clearer view of their assets and helps them operate their businesses more efficiently.

Digital Shopping

Digital selling is becoming increasingly important in the automotive industry because many consumers begin the car-buying process online. Instead of visiting a dealership without doing research, customers can check prices, compare vehicles, estimate monthly payments, determine the value of their trade-ins, and communicate with dealerships online.

Tekion designed its digital selling technology to support this new way of shopping. The technology can connect online activity with dealership systems, so customers do not have to enter the same information repeatedly when they complete a purchase in person. This connection can make the transition from a dealership website to a physical showroom easier and more convenient.

Tekion and AI

Artificial intelligence is becoming an important part of modern automotive dealership technology, and Tekion has integrated AI capabilities into its product strategy. AI could assist companies with activities such as customer engagement, data analysis, recommendations, process automation, and operational decision-making. AI-based systems can organize large amounts of dealership information and automate repetitive tasks that might otherwise take employees significant amounts of time.

The real value of these technologies depends on how individual dealerships deploy them. However, the broader goal is to reduce routine administrative work so employees can focus on customer-facing and higher-value activities.

Why Cloud-Based Dealership Software Is a Good Idea

Cloud-based dealership software can offer several potential operational benefits. One major benefit is that workers can access information from a central location. Connecting systems from different areas can allow employees to view information about customers, vehicles, sales, and service activities.

Cloud platforms can also make software updates easier. Providers can typically deliver new features and improvements through a central platform instead of requiring dealerships to update each computer individually.

Scalability represents another potential benefit. Dealership groups with multiple locations may use a standardized platform to manage their technology across different stores. Cloud-based systems can also integrate with other digital tools and services used throughout the automotive industry.

What Tekion Is Doing to Modernize Dealerships

The automobile industry has undergone a major digital transformation as more consumers use the internet and smartphones to research, purchase, and register vehicles. This shift means dealers need technology that can connect digital customer experiences with their traditional showroom and service operations.

Tekion says its platform responds to this shift by bringing capabilities such as customer relationship management, vehicle sales, service, parts, and financing together in the cloud.

Tekion built the platform around the concept of a connected car retail business rather than treating the dealership as a collection of separate departments.

Tekion and the Market for Automotive Software

Tekion operates in a competitive automotive technology market that includes established software companies and newer cloud-based technology providers.

Traditional dealership systems have existed for many years and often form the foundation of dealership operations. Through cloud computing, integrated applications, digital shopping, automation, and artificial intelligence, newer systems such as Tekion aim to modernize this environment.

Factors such as functionality, integration capabilities, ease of use, implementation requirements, customer support, security, scalability, and cost all influence competition in this market.

As a result, dealerships typically evaluate software according to their own business requirements and technology environments.

Who Can Get Something Out of Tekion?

Businesses that sell vehicles, including franchise dealerships and dealer groups, primarily use Tekion’s technology. Different employees use different parts of the platform depending on their roles. Sales teams use the system to manage customers and vehicles. Service advisors use it to manage repair and maintenance activities. Parts workers use it to manage parts operations, while finance teams use it for transaction-related tasks.

Managers can use the platform’s reporting and analytics features to monitor dealership performance. Larger dealership groups may also benefit from technology that connects operations across multiple locations.

Why Automotive Software Is Important

Modern dealerships handle a large amount of data every day. They need accurate records of customers, vehicles, supplies, prices, financing information, repair histories, parts, schedules, and contacts. When different systems store this information separately, workers may have to reenter data or switch between programs. This process can make routine work more difficult and can lead to inconsistent or outdated information.

Integrated automotive software can help solve this problem by creating a more connected environment that allows data to move between different dealership processes. The broader goal goes beyond replacing paper records with computers. It also involves changing how dealerships manage their operations in an increasingly digital automotive industry.  

Conclusion

The new wave of car retail technology that includes Tekion focuses on cloud computing, digital shopping, robotics, and artificial intelligence. For example, Tekion designed its Automotive Retail Cloud to assist dealerships with customer relationship management, vehicle sales and service, parts and inventory, finances, and data management. Tekion aims to help dealers navigate the process of buying and owning a vehicle by connecting these areas within a more consolidated technology environment. The company also aims to help dealerships adapt to customers who increasingly expect digital experiences.

Solutions such as Tekion form part of a broader shift from fragmented legacy systems toward integrated, cloud-based dealership management solutions. As automotive retail becomes more technology-driven, dealership software will continue to play an important role in connecting customers, employees, vehicles, sales, service, and business operations.