As we gear up for the second annual AIS, July 23-25 in Raleigh, N.C., we are also organizing the very first group of fintech startups that make up the inaugural “Emerging 8”.
This new program, implemented by AIS and sister publication the Auto Fin Journal, is designed to honor new companies that aim to improve a specific aspect or aspects of the auto-financing process through technology.
These exciting new companies are on the cusp of innovation in fintech development. They are all “on to something” that could turn the dial on their respective aspects of fintech in the next 5 years.
The collection of honorees for the 2019 Emerging 8 cover many aspects of fintech development, from vehicle remarketing and retail, to auto financing. Almost every aspect of the automotive wholesale and retail process stands to be changed and improved by technology coming out of the intersection of finance and technology.

The honorees are required to be in the early growth phases — 5 years old or younger, and making waves in the fintech solutions industry.
While the companies may have had outside investment and multiple rounds of funding, these innovative new names in the industry are pre-IPO and have not been launched or acquired by a larger entity with a foothold in the market.
Register for AIS 2019 here to ensure you hear the latest on what’s new in fintech.
The July/August issue of the Auto Fin Journal will cover the first-ever class of fintech’s Emerging 8, but readers can expect to see this feature annually going forward into 2020.
Not only will the Emerging 8 be recognized the in the Auto Fin Journal, they will also be invited to participate in Wednesday’s Emerging 8 Award Luncheon at the Auto Intelligence Summit on July 24th.
Each company will be allowed the opportunity to explore their enterprises’ goals, mission, and plans from the AIS podium.
These new and upcoming companies, set to be honored next month at AIS 2019, were chosen by AIS and parent company Cherokee Media Group, in partnership with the members of the Auto Intel Council (AIC).
The AIC includes the leading intelligence companies in the automotive space, along with their respective economists, analysts, researchers, data scientists, communications professionals and executives.
AIC produces quarterly Auto Intel Briefings that features data reports, whitepapers, research, and more, contributed by AIC members. These Auto Intel Briefings provide the industry and its stakeholders unique insights and perspectives on various topics driving the automotive business. The latest installment is available here.
Stay tuned to the AIS blog, as well as the Auto Fin Journal, for the announcement of the inaugural Emerging 8, and more info on what to expect at this year’s Auto Intelligence Summit and Emerging 8 Awards Luncheon.
On top of having some of the most promising startups in fintech on site at AIS, we will also be covering the fintech solutions industry in detail through panels, workshops and keynotes across the span of the event.
See below for a few highlights from our fintech lineup. And make sure to check out the full 2019 AIS agenda here.
- The Next Level of Fintech: What will the Auto Industry Solve Next? This panel will feature Sharen Mancero, Senior Vice President, Wells Fargo Preferred Capital; Dinesh Chopra, Chief Strategy Officer, Ally Financial, and more. Discover the latest in auto fintech — one of the fastest growing areas for venture capitalists.

Marguerite Watanabe, President, Connections Insights
- How Mobile and APIs have disrupted Auto FinTech: In this workshop, Bill Nemecek, VP of Business Development, CarFinance LLC, will explore how the automotive purchase process has been disrupted multiple times by fintech organizations over the past few years. Learn how mobile consumer pressures are forcing the industry to move and why high speed, real-time APIs and new transparent experiences are the way forward for the successful evolution of fintechs.
- As the Auto Fintech Landscape Evolves: Marguerite Watanabe, President, Connections Insights, will highlight how auto fintech market players are striving to differentiate their value propositions to auto finance companies and banks, dealers and/or consumers, as well as the investment community.
Nick Zulovich, Auto Fin Journal Senior Editor, contributed to this post.
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#AutoIntelSummit
The Automotive Intelligence Summit’s 2019 agenda is filling up fast after an impressive response to our 2019 call for speakers. It seems you, the auto industry, have a lot to say on the topics we are focusing on at AIS, come this July 23-25 in Raleigh, N.C.
And as the agenda nears completion, a lineup of keynote speakers and panelists have come together we think might pique your interest — especially if the following are top of mind for you, your business, or your industry: digital retailing, fintech solutions, cybersecurity, data privacy, customer experience, the future of auto dealerships, Mobility-as-a-Service and more.
See the full AIS 2019 agenda, and AIS speakers and presenters.
Workshops and breakout sessions are crucial to any event, providing quality educational material and takeaways for our attendees to bring back to their respective businesses. And we have quite the lineup already of over 20 workshops and and Auto Intel Snapshots (brief, 10-15 minute presentations that are new to the event this year, and will be shared by some of the foremost thought leaders in the auto industry).
But at the backbone of any successful event is its keynote speakers — those names that draw attendees in, provide them with meaningful content, and in large part, often make the trip worth the money and time away from work. And we don’t take that responsibility lightly. That’s why we’ve assembled a lineup that represent companies like SAS, Ally Financial, GM Financial, MotoInsight, Wells Fargo, IHS Markit and more. And many of these AIS speakers are on the front lines of auto industry evolution in their respective businesses.

Lonnie Miller, principle industry consultant, SAS, will dissect customer experience with a panel of fellow SAS leaders.
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Highlights from the Auto Intel Summit 2019 Keynote Lineup:
- KEYNOTE ADDRESS — Digital Retailing: Separating the Facts from Fiction: Examine how dealers can apply lessons learned from best-in-class retailers like Amazon and cautionary tales like Toy R Us. Andrew Tai, CEO at MotoIsight, says his goal “is to help dealers better understand the wave of change that is already upon us, but also navigate how to take advantage of it.”

Andrew Tai, CEO, MotoInsight, will separate the facts from fiction in digital retail on Wednesday, July 24th, at AIS 2019.
- FIRESIDE CHAT — Cybersecurity for the Future of Auto: Discover the answers to the most pressing cybersecurity issues that the auto and auto finance industry are facing. Where and what cybersecurity technologies are receiving the most investment and why? AIS Chair Bill Zadeits and Ryan Bachman, SVP Global Chief Information Security Officer, GM Financial, explore the complexity and importance of the intersection of data privacy and cybersecurity
- PANEL — The Next Level of Fintech: What will the Auto Industry Solve Next? Discover the latest in auto fintech — one of the fastest growing areas for venture capitalists. Find out where the industry is headed in terms of programming and tech with captive leaders — a conversation led by Sharen Mancero, Senior Vice President, Wells Fargo Preferred Capital.

Ryan Bachman, SVP Global Chief Information Security Officer, GM Financial, will discuss cybersecurity with AIS chair Bill Zadeits.
- PANEL — How & Why CX Is Improving with Big, Streaming and Intelligent Customer Data: Take a practitioner’s view of how businesses in and outside of the automotive industry are using customer information and analytics to genuinely improve the customer experience (CX). The discussion led by Lonnie Miller, principle industry consultant, at SAS, will myth-bust and share applications of popular concepts like “AI”, “IoT” and “predictive analytics.”
- KEYNOTE ADDRESS — Automotive Industry Outlook: Assessing Volatility, Opportunities and Risks in a Dynamic Market Environment. Mike Wall, Director, Automotive Analysis, IHS Markit, will offer a high-level economic review and outlook for global sales, deeper dive discussion of IHS Markit’s U.S. light vehicle sales outlook and discussion of powertrain/technology/mobility trends.
Follow along with us as we continue to add even more speakers to our growing lineup of over 30 leaders in auto.
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#AutoIntelSummit
We’re only two weeks away from the opening of the inaugural Automotive Intelligence Summit, and we’re so excited for you to soak up all the content we’ve assembled for you. Here’s a little taste of two fintech sessions we think you’ll really enjoy.

Jim Landy, the CEO of SpringboardAuto, recognizes that consumers want a better buying experience, have more choices and to complete more of the process online. However, providing the user experience your customers are looking for is not just about technology. The modern consumer experience values real-time responses, full transparency and the ability to self-direct throughout the process. The best digital technology’s success depends on the speed of change inside the organization being faster than the pace of change outside the organization.
Landy’s closing keynote, “Bridging the Technology Gap & Predicting the Pace of Change,” will consider how to make the unstoppable and constant innovations in tech work for you and your customers. Thankfully, better strategies don’t just start with esoteric programs and apps; they begin with behavioral change and having the right people. Landy will also contend that the desired user experience will eventually prevail and opportunity is ripe with a notoriously less-than-satisfying buying experience in a very large market. Demographic change, new ownership models and completing the digital experience will create significant opportunity for start-ups unless incumbents move faster and pragmatically remove entrenched interests that shy away from risk.

Start off the third and final day of the Automotive Intelligence Summit the right way with this panel of master financial minds. Ed Falco, senior director of the Auriemma Consulting Group, leads a discussion with Rod Arends, vice president of service center operations for Southeast Toyota Finance, and Mark Tuggle, head of auto-lending default management and center of operations for BBVA Compass, entitled “Leveraging New Technology and Analytics to Improve Collection Results.” Through their rousing discussion, you’ll learn how companies have managed to improve efficiency and prevent loss using technology available today, saving upwards of billions of dollars in collections. You’ll discover plenty of strategies for how the largest financial institutions in the world leverage technology and analytics to solve real-world collections problems.
If you’re already registered, you can start getting yourself pumped for these excellent sessions. If you’re not, check out the attendee list, then make your way over to the registration page to add your name.
Perhaps the paramount goal of the Automotive Intelligence Summit is to make sense of all the questions you have about the current developments in the automotive industry, as well as those to come. While all of our speakers and panels will help answer those questions, your best chance to ask the questions most pertinent to your specific interests will be at the peer-to-peer roundtable sessions on Tuesday and Thursday. These intimate gatherings will seat you with an expert in one of the AIS core topics and allow you to bounce ideas off of them and the rest of the interested parties at the session, formulating strategies for the future of auto.
Here’s a rundown of our P2P sessions, in chronological order:

Boasting over 30 years of legal experience with Hudson Cook, CarMax and private practice, Patty Covington knows her way around some case law, and she’s seen enough change over the past few decades to have a good frame of reference of what to expect from the future. Covington’s expertise has been sought by dealerships, leasing companies, auto-sales financiers, tech providers and more, and she’s well-versed in auto finance, personal property and installment lending, dealer law, creditor-based collections, privacy and, perhaps most importantly to her sessions, data security and management.
Covington’s roundtable, “The Endless Opportunities to Get and Use Data — Are There Legal Implications?” will explore the legal issues businesses should consider when collecting, purchasing, handling, analyzing and using data. She’ll field questions on what laws may apply to the collection, handling, analysis and use of data, and hopefully, you’ll learn tips and tricks from you colleagues on how they’re using data.

Jeremiah Wheeler heads DRN’s fintech business, overseeing the business development, data collection and strategy efforts driving DRN’s license plate recognition data and analytics solutions. His expertise serves him well to lead his peer-to-peer session, “Break the ‘Same Data, Same Mistakes’ Cycle with Location Intelligence,” a master class in demonstrating how to use alternative data to improve your business practices.
As insurance carriers, financial services companies and public safety organizations turn to vehicle-location data and analytics to fight fraud, mitigate risk and fight crime, this data disrupts the old models that rely on customer-reported data and opens new opportunities to drive revenue and results. Furthermore, Wheeler will argue that old data models are failing companies in the long run. Be sure to ask Wheeler how best to implement location data to better your bottom line.

It’s a question that seems simple enough on its face. However, we all know that simple questions can open multiple cans of worms. Luckily, we have people like Kartheek Veeravalli around to help answer these tough questions.
Along with being a member of the 2017 class of Auto Remarketing’s 40 Under 40, Veeravalli currently serves as chief product officer at defi SOLUTIONS. Prior to that, he helped create decision-management platforms for multiple Fortune 500 companies across the world while working at FICO and built a short-term lending portfolio to $100M via the use of customer analytics while portfolio risk manager at Think Finance. So, despite his youth, Veeravalli possesses the bona fides necessary to answer the tough questions.
Veeravalli plans on his peer-to-peer roundtable to be a widely engaging session. From the question posed by the title, “Are You Ready for the New Age of Auto Finance?” Veeravalli hopes, with your participation, to field and answer questions about recent changes and coming innovations in the auto-finance sector, tech solutions best suited to take advantage of the market and what adjustments you and your peers are making or planning to get ready for the future.
If you’re already registered, you can start planning your questions. If you’re not, check out the attendee list and then make your way over to the registration page to add your name.