Cloud company Tekion turns unicorn with $150 mn fundraise

San Ramon, California headquartered cloud technology company Tekion on Thursday said it has raised $150 million in a Series C funding round, taking its valuation to over $1 billion.

The round, a statement said, was led by global private equity investor Advent International. Index Ventures, Exor -- the holding company of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Ferrari, Airbus Ventures and FM Capital. 

Founded in 2016 by former Tesla CIO and Indian origin entrepreneur Jay Vijayan, the company’s research and development operations are largely based out of India. The firm, which employs 450 engineers globally, runs a development centre in Chennai and has its Asia Pacific headquarters in Bengaluru.  

Tekion, which offers automotive OEMs a retail operating platform through the SaaS model, will invest the fresh capital into platform development and expansion, the statement said. 

With customers in the US market, the firm currently works with 17 OEM brands and offers services to automotive dealers. Its automotive retail cloud platform provides dealers access to the data that helps them improve customer experience and efficiency, while cutting costs. The cloud-native platform connects OEMs and dealers on an application and uses technology, such as artificial intelligence,  internet of things (IoT) and machine learning to improve the retail experience for customers. 

“Today’s consumers receive outstanding personalised retail experiences from companies like Amazon, Apple, Google and Disney. Why shouldn’t they expect the same in their vehicle acquisition and service needs? We believe Tekion will be the trailblazer for enabling the modernization of the entire consumer journey...,” Vijayan, also the CEO of Tekion, said in the statement. 

It has previously raised capital across a multi-stage Series B round -- GM Ventures invested an undisclosed amount in February 2020, while BMW iVentures infused $22 million in the firm in 2018. The company raised $10 million in Series A round from Index Ventures in 2017.  It also counts Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi Alliance Ventures as a strategic investor.