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Need for speed: Fintech driving an industry into the future

As young, tech-savvy buyers gain market share, digitised and personalised services are becoming the norm. These consumers like to manage their lives from their phones, and they expect curated customer journeys to be available to them 24/7.
As young, tech-savvy buyers gain market share, digitised and personalised services are becoming the norm. These consumers like to manage their lives from their phones, and they expect curated customer journeys to be available to them 24/7. Every business must keep innovating to meet these ‘fast and curious’ trends, and the car finance industry is no exception. Online car sales is a rapidly growing market, and today the idea of visiting a dealership to fill out reams of paperwork in the hopes of being approved for a car loan seems outdated. So it’s no surprise that a new digital ecosystem connecting car lenders, dealers and buyers is enjoying a rapid uptake in the US, where 5,000-plus lenders approve more than 100 million car loans a year in a market worth US$1.2 trillion annually. The online platform created by fintech Carsfast uses artificial intelligence to help lenders and dealerships proactively engage with their customers without the need for call centres or snail mail, and creates a frictionless channel for buyers to choose a car from any showroom within a finance provider’s network of approved dealers. For traditional lenders looking to protect themselves from digital disruptors, Carsfast’s compliance-packaged product is a ready-made and welcome alternative to having to build their own digital capability in an attempt to compete. And with lenders finding it harder to get new customers to buy cars after the majority of customers took advantage of an inventory purge during COVID, an allegiance is timely. For car dealerships needing a better way to reach consumers who prefer shopping online, Carsfast provides a cost-effective path to taking the customer experience digital and showcasing their inventory to active buyers. Recognition of the changing buyer landscape, and the desire to adapt with it, is evident among dealers, with research showing 94% are re-evaluating their sales processes and 86% are focusing on the customer experience. And for consumers, the platform makes it easy to browse new and used vehicles across the country with end-to-end tailored support via AI-powered chatbots and SMS. Nearly a third of consumers want a fast, easy and convenient buying process but ‘wait time’ is the foremost pain point for 41% of those surveyed – an issue fixed by the Carsfast ecosystem. The team behind Carsfast are second-time founders with a track record of executing autotech products. Their last product, CarDeals2Me, operated in Australia, New Zealand and Canada powering multiple auto retail systems such as Finder. The team’s vision for their latest start-up, founded in 2019, is to become the fintech of choice for automotive lenders in the US, and then the Salesforce of automated customer engagement solutions for all lenders. No competitor offers the same full range of services as Carsfast, which has demonstrated a 68x better conversion rate than existing benchmarks. The company is currently focused on servicing mid-tier finance providers before moving upmarket to the major US banks, and has already signed five major lenders, with one now live and four in the process of rolling out. Noting its scalable tech, clear moat and growing network, Carsfast is already generating revenue and is targeting becoming cash flow positive as early as this calendar year.
 

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