UP.Labs-Porsche’s newest startup wants to be the Plaid of automotive retail

INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
As serial entrepreneur Joel Milne founded, scaled, and then successfully sold mobile auto repair service startup RepairSmith to AutoNation,
average dealership relies on more than 40 different software systems, ranging from dealer management systems and customer relationship
management tools to digital retailing, service, inventory, and payment processing platforms.Milne compared it to the financial services
industry 20 years ago
Fintech company Plaid, which connects bank accounts to financial applications, helped close that communication gap
to allow dealerships and service shops to communicate in real time with the manufacturers and software vendors that power their
operations.AutoUnify has been operating quietly for nine months and is based in Santa Monica, California
After piloting with multiple customers in 2024, AutoUnify is now opening its sales to the industry.AutoUnify is the latest startup to come
out of a multi-year partnership between UP.Labs and Porsche
employs today to about 20 by the end of the year
is not a venture firm, even though it emerged from, and operates in parallel with, UP.Partners
The company, which launched during UP.Summit 2022 in Bentonville, Arkansas, is structured as a venture lab with a new kind of financial
biggest problems and create startups with business models that will solve those pain points
To date, the companies have launched four startups, including Pull Systems, a software-as-as-service platform that provides performance
management software to EV suppliers, manufacturers, and operators, and Sensigo, which created an AI platform that allows service technicians