Start your engines, Dallas. This week’s selection of DFW tech news you may have missed includes a funding announcement from an auto financing platform, the prospect of an autonomous vehicle plant and a startup that wants to reduce fossil fuel usage. Keep reading for all the electrifying details. This is the Built In DFW weekly refresh.
Car Capital raised $156M. The auto fintech startup announced last Tuesday that it closed a $150 million secured credit investment, as well as a $6.12 million equity investment. The company’s platform helps car dealerships access capital to instantly approve 100 percent of its customers’ car loans, despite their credit history. [Built In DFW]
Dallas wooed Ford Motor Company. Dallas city officials last week approved more than $3 million in grants and tax incentives for the auto giant to create a $160 million self-driving vehicle facility in partnership with Argo AI. Dallas is competing against two other cities in California for the partnership’s next facility. The potential Dallas factory would create at least 250 jobs and would be located west of Dallas Love Field Airport. [Dallas Morning News]
Skyven earned $4M. The Richardson-based energy-as-a-service (EaaS) company will use the funding to strengthen its fight against climate change. The company uses propriety AI and data to find decarbonization opportunities, particularly those that reduce fossil fuel consumption. The company has also developed technology that more efficiently heats industrial facilities with thermal energy, saving 54 gallons of diesel per year. [Built In DFW]
Harver named a new CEO. The volume hiring software company named Scott Landers as its new CEO and chairman of its board of directors. Landers most recently served as president and CEO of Monotype, an on-demand font service. Dallas-based Outmatch acquired Amsterdam-based Harver in May, and five months later, Outmatch announced it would rebrand itself as Harver. [Harver]
