Tekion, a cloud technology provider for automotive sector founded by Tesla’s former CIO Jay Vijayan, has secured $200 million in growth equity capital from Dragoneer Investment Group. This financing round sets Tekion’s valuation above $4 billion, the company said in a press release. 

Tekion plans to invest the capital to expand its product offering for dealer partners and OEMs, accelerate implementation timelines, and deliver better customer support.

“Tekion has charted an extraordinary growth path, revolutionizing the automotive retail industry through our comprehensive and fully integrated platform,” said Jay Vijayan, Founder and CEO of Tekion. “We are delighted to partner with Dragoneer, whose team has followed our progress closely for multiple years, believes in our long-term vision, and carries an impressive track record investing in best-in-class vertical SaaS businesses.”

The funding announcement follows Tekion’s performance in 2023, with 97% year-over-year annual run rate revenue growth and expanding partnerships in the industry including with over 2,000 automotive retailers, multiple leading-brand OEMs, and over 250 ecosystem technology partners. The company had recently made key appointments to its leadership team, including the CFO, CRO, and CTO. 

“Having watched Tekion’s rapid pace of innovation and market adoption over the past several years, we are proud to partner with and support Jay and his world-class team in the next phase of the company’s growth journey,” said Christian Jensen, Partner at Dragoneer. “

Tekion had raised $250 million funding in October 2021. The Pleasanton-headquartered firm has close to 3000 employees globally and caters to some of the leading automotive dealers across geographies.  

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CleverTap, a SaaS platform for customer engagement, announced the appointment of Sidharth Pisharoti as the new Chief Revenue Officer. In his new role, Sidharth will be responsible for driving CleverTap’s growth across India, META, and Asia Pacific regions, as well as designing and executing the company’s go-to-market strategy.

Prior to joining CleverTap, Sidharth had a long stint of close to 17 years at Akamai Technologies, serving in some key roles. 

In his career spanning 2 decades, Sidharth has a proven track record of leading sales teams across Asia Pacific, Europe, and LATAM regions. 

Sidharth Malik, CEO, CleverTap said, “I am thrilled to announce the appointment of Sidharth as our new Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) for the India, META, and APAC regions. His addition will help accelerate our growth and strengthen our presence in these crucial markets. Thanks to the varied demands of a diverse customer base, these regions drive our MarTech innovation even further. Sidharth’s expertise in driving sales and revenue will help us achieve unprecedented levels of growth while delivering localized solutions that meet the distinct needs of the market.”

Sidharth Pisharoti, CRO, CleverTap said,“I am ecstatic about joining CleverTap. It’s an incredible opportunity to be part of a company scaling at such an exponential pace within the customer engagement domain. CleverTap’s commitment to maximizing a brand’s customer lifetime value aligns perfectly with my personal drive to deliver unparalleled growth and innovation for clients. I am confident that together, we will empower businesses to forge stronger connections with their customers, drive growth and foster long-term success.”

Founded in 2013 by former Network 18 executives, Sunil Thomas, Suresh Kondamudi, and Anand Jain, CleverTap today serves more than 2000 customers, including Electronic Arts, TiltingPoint, Gamebasics, Big Fish, MobilityWare, TED, English Premier League, TD Bank, Carousell, AirAsia, Papa John’s, and Tesco.

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