Modal Commerce

Modal, formerly known as Drive Motors, is an American-based company in San Francisco, that sells software for a dealership's website, allowing car shoppers to purchase new and used cars online. Aaron Krane founded the software company in 2015, while he was working as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Khosla Ventures.

Modal
FormerlyNext Technologies (2015-2016)
Drive Motors (2016-2019)
TypePrivate
IndustryE-commerce, Automotive industry
Founded2015
FounderAaron Krane
Headquarters
San Francisco
,
United States
Websitemodalup.com

In 2016, the company, then known as Next Technologies, entered the seed accelerator, Y Combinator.

History

Aaron Krane founded Modal Commerce in 2015 while he was an entrepreneur-in-residence at Khosla Ventures.[1] The idea came when Krane noticed there were very few solutions allowing users to buy new cars online but also allowing auto dealers to sell them.[2]

After spending a number of months looking for a car himself after he sold his first business to Yahoo! in 2013, he realized that the process was incredibly time consuming and could be streamlined.[3] In an interview with TechCrunch he stated, "it became shockingly clear that ecommerce had not reached new cars." When speaking about the competition, Krane suggested that the vast majority of large car sales websites were effectively online magazines, listing cars that you could purchase in person.[4]

Krane at the time worked with someone who owned a number of car dealerships in California and agreed to set up a pilot program with one of them. Over the next five months, he honed the product until he was sufficiently satisfied with it to let other dealerships use it. Once the software was in beta, he signed up 50 more dealerships within 6 months by the end of 2015.[5]

The former Drive Motors logo, used until June 2019

After the idea of the company was established, Next Technologies then entered seed accelerator Y Combinator in 2016.[1] This was following rapid growth in Modal's revenue. It was stated that it took only 10 months for their turnover to rise to $1 million in annual recurring revenue following their official launch.[6] They also attended the AutoVentures Conference in 2016, where Modal was listed as a contestant for the main award and pitched their product as the future of the auto industry. Drive Motors was announced the winner following Krane's presentation.[7] In June 2019, the company rebranded as Modal Commerce.[8]

Modal signed up their largest client to date in 2016, with Asbury Automotive Group agreeing to test the software at a handful of their dealerships.[9] Later that year, Asbury announced they were extending the software to more of their dealerships.[10]

Mechanics

Dealers are able to implement the software and sell cars directly from the dealership website..[11]

When a user goes onto the website, it allows them to configure the car by a number of different options.[12] Once the model of the car has been chosen and the extras have been configured, Modal allows the user to set up financing for the car and pay the dealer all through the software plugin.[5]

References
  1. "Drive Motors Lets You Buy a New Car Completely Online". Y Combinator. March 9, 2016.
  2. "Meet another 29 Bay Area startups from Y Combinator's second Demo Day". Biz Journals. March 26, 2016.
  3. Cutler, Kim-Mai (October 1, 2013). "Yahoo To Acquire Sports-Centric Mobile Developer Hitpost". TechCrunch.
  4. Constine, Josh (February 11, 2016). "Drive Motors Lets You Actually Buy A Car Online. How Did This Not Exist?". TechCrunch.
  5. Sommer, Cari (November 28, 2016). "How This 30-Something Entrepreneur Is Giving The 100 Year-Old Automotive Industry A Tune-up". Forbes.
  6. "Fraser McCombs Capital Bridges the Gap to AutoTech". DrivingSales. November 29, 2016.
  7. Geraldi, Ryan. "Recap of 2016 DrivingSales Executive Summit and AutoVentures". Dealer Refresh.
  8. "Drive Motors Is Now Modal, Announces $5 Million From New Investors To Expand Its Automotive Digital Commerce Technology" (Press release). June 14, 2019. Retrieved June 14, 2019.
  9. "Asbury expands online sales experiment". Automotive News. August 15, 2016.
  10. Overby, Joe (August 10, 2016). "Asbury offers 100% online car-buying via Drive Motors". Auto Remarketing.
  11. Gandarilla, Eric (December 2016). "Drive Motors Aims to Break Silicon Valley Mold". F&I and Showroom magazine.
  12. Geraldi, Ryan (August 28, 2016). "Online Vehicle Checkout: An Interview with Drive Motors CEO Aaron Krane". Dealer Refresh.
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