We’re excited to announce our latest early-stage investment in AutoGrab!
AutoGrab is building the most advanced automotive market pricing and intelligence platform. As a complete software solution for the automotive and vehicle-adjacent industries, AutoGrab’s platform captures and aggregates real-time, market-wide data on all vehicles listed online and uses an AI-driven machine learning model to provide accurate pricing and valuations - all presented in a single, easy-to-use platform.
AutoGrab was founded by Daniel Werzberger, after successfully exiting his previous company, Areyouselling.com.au (an online car platform, which he grew to $30M turnover per year before selling it to the Eclipx Group in 2017 (ASX:ECX)). Daniel has been involved in the automotive industry since 2012 and building a strong track record, deep industry networks, and a rare digital skillset in the auto sector. Daniel has teamed up with Chris Gardner (Co-Founder) who spent the last decade working for Loke Digital (UK scale-up) and SugarUX. During his time at SugarUX, Chris worked with many startups, leading their product development and building over 100 MVPs. At SugarUX, Chris also managed clients such as NAB, which ultimately led to being engaged by Daniel in 2016 where the pair hit it off. Chris has extensive knowledge in automotive valuations and multi-market transactions with over 6 years of experience in product and innovation in the automotive sector. He has successfully partnered with over 100 automotive, finance, and insurance brands, many of which are clients of AutoGrab today.
Problem:
Since 2019, the number of people buying and selling vehicles online has doubled, and with the market dominated by a handful of major players, at first glance it’s easy to assume the problem of complete and robust secondary market pricing data has already been solved. However, the fragmented nature of used vehicle sales, disparate offline and online pricing data points, and ever-changing external macro environment (supply chain issues etc) mean that vehicle pricing remains a moving target and requires consistent and reliable data - making this problem a complex and difficult one to solve.
Incorrect data on pricing and purchasing not only impacts the purchasing and sales decisions, and profitability of dealerships. Mis-pricing created by a lack of information is also a challenge for industries that rely on vehicle pricing data as a key input of their business models: insurance, asset finance, fleet services, and professional services.
Solution:
Solving this challenge requires sophisticated and advanced technology. AutoGrab has invested considerable resources into developing the platform’s underlying technology and AI model to ensure accuracy, but also scalability.
The key driver of the platform’s success, and one of the company’s competitive advantages, is its independent vehicle database. AutoGrab has extensive auto market coverage with the largest independent database in Australia covering vehicle-specific data for all vehicles listed for sale online, and market-wide data, updated every second. This data is then fed into AutoGrab’s AI-driven model (’the engine’) where advanced machine learning processes are applied and used in complex data science algorithms to determine accurate, real-time pricing of any vehicle.
Using this data as a foundation, the company’s platform provides visibility and unmatched insights across the entire auto market - enabling AutoGrab to also offer adjacent solutions for industry participants that supports business management, operations, sales, improves profitability, and delivers a greater customer experience.
In the 2 years since the company launched, AutoGrab has achieved significant growth across Australia and New Zealand, and is already expanding internationally, starting with the UK and Asia. AutoGrab currently has dozens of SMB and enterprise dealership customers, and is winning customers at the ‘rooftop’ dealership level as well. This strong adoption among dealerships in Australia and New Zealand has shown us that the team can navigate B2B sales.
Why We Invested:
- Auto market shape and flux: With the advent of COVID-19 and supply chain pressures, many second-hand vehicles are selling at higher prices than they were 3-4 years ago, supply chains are broken, inflation is on the rise, and fuel prices are at some of their highest levels ever. Plus add the entry of Electric Vehicles (EVs), future regulation, and their impacts on current car valuations, and you have a market clearly in flux. The auto industry is hungry for accurate data. This is not being serviced by existing data providers - a statement proving to be true given AutoGrab’s rapid adoption across Australia and New Zealand, plus global opportunities already emerging for the team.
- Strong pipeline to accelerate growth - across new products and geographies: Already successfully operating in the Australian and New Zealand dealership markets, AutoGrab has a strong pipeline of growth opportunities across industries and geographies. The company has launched 5 product lines and continues to expand its offering and sales, with solid early progress in the insurance, lending, and professional services markets.
Disrupting the traditionally opaque auto industry by creating visibility, transparency, and accuracy of vehicle pricing is a complex problem, and requires significant resourcing and engineering talent to solve it. Armed with an extra capital injection from this round, AutoGrab will be well-capitalised and positioned to achieve its ambition of becoming the most advanced automotive intelligence platform and prepare to take its solution into global markets.
In the new capital-conscious fundraising environment of 2022 it is rare to see a company working on a huge problem, showing strong enterprise sales go-to-market economics, cashflow breakeven and growing at an incredible rate. We are super excited for the opportunity ahead of Dan, Chris and the AutoGrab team.
Safe Travels!
Alexandra and the TEN13 Team