UPSTART Subaru News

Hi guys,

“As a retailer, there is nothing more powerful than having everything you need, right up front, to structure a deal a customer is ready to say yes to,” said Shane Fouch, General Sales Manager at Byers Subaru. “With the B&P product, we now have the ability to fulfill nearly every customer vehicle request.”

https://investing.quicken.com/public/view_headline.asp?docum…

Cheers,

mpfd

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Upstart… today announced it is now certified as the first partner in the new ‘Build and Price’ category in the Subaru Certified Digital Tools Program. Upstart Auto Retail’s Build & Price product was developed to help turn inventory challenges into opportunities for more retailers.

Built on top of Upstart Auto Retail’s innovative digital retail platform, Build & Price allows car buyers to go through the process of browsing, shopping, and building deals online for vehicles that are not currently in stock or even in transit to the store. Subaru retailers can then work with customers on options and sourcing.

“Many manufacturers are forecasting inventory shortages for this year and next. This is going to make it challenging for consumers to buy the car they truly want.” said Michia Rohrssen, GM of Upstart Auto Retail. “The Upstart Auto Retail Build & Price product is an innovative way to help customers get started online and for Subaru retailers to provide extra value early in the purchase process.”

Customers are empowered to pre-build a year, make, and model of vehicle, while also making several other build selections. They’re also presented with dynamic pricing associated with the build combination they’ve chosen. Every submission includes pertinent customer information, their vehicle selection, and build preferences.

“As a retailer, there is nothing more powerful than having everything you need, right up front, to structure a deal a customer is ready to say yes to,” said Shane Fouch, General Sales Manager at Byers Subaru. “With the B&P product, we now have the ability to fulfill nearly every customer vehicle request.”

Build & Price is available to Subaru retailers enrolled with Upstart Auto Retail via the Subaru Certified Digital Tools Program at no additional cost or as a standalone option for $175 per month.

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Build & Price is available to Subaru retailers enrolled with Upstart Auto Retail via the Subaru Certified Digital Tools Program at no additional cost or as a standalone option for $175 per month.

Do my lying eyes deceive me, or is this Upstart’s first entry into real SaaS?

Some quick Google searches:
There are apparently ~17000 new car dealerships in the USA. About 600 of these deal with Subaru. At this point I’m not sure what other filters to apply, but that’s a potential Subaru revenue of $1.26 million, which is kind of pocket change.

I’m not sure why such a feature would be limited to Subaru however, when we’re looking at the whole market the potential becomes slightly more interesting at around $36 million, but it’s still pocket change, adding a potential 0.5% to their current revenue.

It sounds like it’s really just high-end website design, hosting, and product management. But if it can funnel borrowers into the Upstart ecosystem, and they can charge for the privilege of using it, sounds like a win-win.

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from the CEO during the earnings release

"Our auto refi funnel performance is now comparable to where our personal loan funnel was in 2019 on a channel-adjusted basis.

Based on this progress, we now expect $1.5 billion in auto loan transactions on our platform in 2022. Just as importantly, we now have the confidence to invest the resources necessary to unleash the model and technology improvements in auto lending that made Upstart the category leader in personal lending.

As I referenced earlier, this great leap forward was the product of an intense push by our auto team toward the end of Q4. There are many pieces and parts we needed to get right to enable a minimally efficient funnel and the team worked night and day right up through the holidays to make it happen. It’s worth stating that scaling the auto business from here is no simple task, more funnel and model improvements will be necessary, and distribution channels in auto refi aren’t nearly as well established as they are in personal lending.

But even though channel development will require significant time and effort, the good news is that we’re confident we’re in a class by ourselves. Upstart has a unique and proprietary auto refinance product with far less competition than we’ve had in personal lending. In truth, if you don’t have a certain level of funnel efficiency in auto refi, you really don’t have a product. Today, we’re confident that automotive lending is a category we can grow into for years to come."

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I thought we were not allowed under pain of Mortal Sin to bring up UPSTART ever again. Was I wrong?

We took a two-week break from Upstart, which long ago finished.

Saul

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