Millions of dollars in venture capital are changing hands in Texas this week.
Dallas Venture Capital made a $1 million investment in Austin-based Rollick Inc. as part of an $8.5 million funding round that included Sandbox Insurtech Ventures, TechNexus Venture Collaborative, Capital Factory and others.
Rollick is a digital platform and marketing service for sellers of RVs, boats and other recreational vehicles.
“Rollick is poised to be a disruptor in the surging and fast-growing RV Industry as their SaaS-based cloud-native relationship management platform ushers in a contactless RV buying experience for consumers as more and more are looking to pursue pandemic-safe outdoor activities like roadtreking, boating and sailing,” Dayakar Puskoor, founder and managing partner of DVC, said in a statement.
It’s the second investment since Indian American venture capitalists Puskoor and former Wipro CEO Abidali Neemuchwala launched the firm in September, with hopes of growing the Texas-India business connection. Its first investment was in insurance tech company PLNAR, also based in Austin.
Dallas Venture Capital said it invested in Rollick because the company’s leadership has a track record of success in the automotive space. CEO Bernie Brenner was a co-founder of automotive pricing marketplace TrueCar, which went public in 2014.
The first three months of this year were hot for venture capital investment across the globe, hitting an all-time high of $100 billion for the quarter, according to Crunchbase. The amount of money invested in growth-stage companies — like Dallas Venture Capital’s recent investment targets — also set a record.
Grapevine-based Car Capital also attracted an $8.8 million investment this week. The company provides auto dealerships with a web-based platform, called Dealer Electronic Auto Loan System, that enables dealers to approve 100% of auto loans regardless of a customer’s credit history.
The funding round was led by FM Capital and included participation from about 50 investors.
“The company possesses the technology to make vehicle financing accessible to all consumers, and dealers will benefit by increasing their monthly unit sales,” FM Capital managing partner Chase Fraser said in a statement.
The money will be used to expand into other states and grow Car Capital’s network of auto dealers. The company is licensed to operate in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
