The latest acquisition by CDK Global will give dealers an avenue to digitize another piece of the car-buying process: lining up car insurance for the consumer.
CDK said Thursday has signed a deal to purchase insurtech company Salty Dot, Inc., which provides car buyers a mobile solution to acquire car insurance without having to exit the shopping process. CDK said bringing Salty into the fold not only expands its own digital offerings, but gives dealers a new revenue stream with the auto insurance market, as well.
“In a time of significant retail disruption, CDK is focused on helping dealers and manufacturers meet the evolving demand for simple and convenient retail experiences,” CDK president and chief executive officer Brian Krzanich said in a news release.
“Now that we’ve completely digitized the sales and service processes within the dealership model, we are taking the next step of bringing dealers new capabilities — like Salty’s Embedded Insurance — to help consumers manage the many decisions that come with buying and owning a car,” Krzanich said. “With Salty, we are strategically rethinking the future of auto retail and helping put dealers in command of the entire consumer experience.”
Through Salty’s platform, the consumer would receive a text that includes a link to a form to secure insurance. The platform then uses artificial intelligence to determine the carrier within its network and personalized policy that best suits that consumer based on their answers in the form.
The platform then sends the insurance policy quote to the consumer digitally.
“I am proud of the work the Salty team has done in creating a digital experience that gives consumers a seamless way to buy insurance when its most relevant to them — during the car-buying process,” Salty founder and CEO James Hall said in the release. “By joining an industry leader like CDK, Salty gains instant access to nearly 15,000 retail locations in automotive and related industries which will accelerate the adoption of our platform and fundamentally change the experience consumers have during and after a vehicle purchase.”
This is the third acquisition CDK has announced in 2021.
In June, the company announced it had acquired digital vehicle sales platform Roadster.
In February, CDK said it completed the acquisition of Austin, Texas-based Square Root. The acquisition was said to be an accelerator for Neuron, which CDK says can empower dealers and OEMs to sell and service more vehicles by helping them create more personalized and differentiated customer experiences.
