Company Achieves Record-Breaking Success as it Delivers a Revolutionary, End-to-End Digital Buying Experience for Recreational Purchases
Octane (Octane Lending Inc.), the fintech revolutionizing the buying experience for major recreational purchases, announced numerous accomplishments during the first half of 2022 as it transforms e-commerce and makes buying lifestyle purchases fast, easy, and accessible.
Octane achieved record-breaking success in 2022 and delivered consistently strong performance. Between January and June 2022, Octane increased originations by 67% year over year through its in-house lender Roadrunner Financial, Inc. The company overcame inventory constraints and other headwinds to solidify its position as one of the top three non-captive lenders in the industry. Octane also entered two new markets, tractors and trailers, which enabled the company to bring speed and ease to the buying experience for even more consumers, dealers, and OEM partners and expanded its total addressable market to $40B.
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Octane also saw considerable success through the adoption of its award-winning Octane Prequal as the number of dealers who added Octane Prequal to their website increased by 550% since the start of the year. The soft pull e-commerce tool supports customers, dealers, and OEMs by giving customers real credit offers while driving incremental ready-to-transact customers to dealerships. The company also leveraged Octane Prequal on its renowned editorial websites, which reach millions of enthusiasts each month. This new digital integration enables customers to instantly prequalify for financing and secure a loan when researching vehicles on Cycle World, providing one more way that Octane adds value throughout the customer journey, from inspiration to purchase and beyond. After seeing initial success on Cycle World, the company plans to expand the experience to UTV Driver and ATV Rider in the coming weeks.
Octane’s considerable growth was partially driven by its success in building and strengthening relationships with its over 4,000 dealer partners. During the first half of 2022, the company gained more new powersports dealer partners than it did during all of 2021. Yet as the company grew its dealer partners, it also deepened its dealer relationships, with the number of loans per dealer increasing by 26% year over year.
Octane also cultivated strong relationships with OEMs. The company launched new partnerships with industry leaders, including Polaris, Inc. and Club Car. Furthermore, for select strategic partners, Octane has begun to customize its proprietary technology platform and tailor its lending and servicing capabilities to enable partners to better support their own customers throughout the entire buying journey with a superior, branded (white-label) experience.
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Octane’s strong performance was also reflected in its recent $375M asset-backed securitization, which was upsized from $275M in the company’s largest securitization to-date. Furthermore, its senior class of notes were rated AAA(sf) by Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA)* and AA(sf) by S&P**, a testament to the company’s underwriting and consistent business performance. The company has completed $1.5B of asset-backed securitizations since launching the program in December 2019.
To increase the speed and ease of buying, Octane launched innovative new products and offerings. It introduced a two-unit purchase experience which allows customers to buy two vehicles or a trailer and a vehicle in a single contract and made several platform improvements to enhance the process for dealer partners. The company also adapted to supply chain constraints by refining its used program to help customers connect with their passions amidst new inventory shortages.
Octane also expanded access to Safe Rate, its proprietary soft pull credit tool, to all dealer partners. This is a significant gain for both consumers and the industry at large as Safe Rate empowers dealers to prequalify customers by submitting loan applications without impacting customer credit scores. As a result, OPE dealers and independent Powersports dealers can better understand their customers’ options and customers can submit multiple applications as they shop around.
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Building on Octane’s commitment to providing best-in-class service, the company optimized the organization of its Credit Ops team to promote stronger dealer relationships and better service continuity. Furthermore, Octane introduced a new mobile-friendly loan servicing portal, which significantly improved the customer experience and resulted in a 60 point increase in NPS.
Octane also invested in its people as it became a team of over 550 employees. To accommodate its 49% year over year growth in Texas, the company opened its new 80,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility near Dallas, which largely serves its operations and servicing teams. It also made several key leadership appointments: Shadi Ashkar, a software/cloud executive who has successfully delivered high-scale mission-critical SaaS and PaaS solutions at leading multinational tech enterprises, was named SVP of Shared Experiences; Tony Perlingieri, a senior Human Resources business leader with extensive experience in a broad range of industries, including scaling high tech organizations and established global companies, joined as SVP of People; and Steven Daum, a well-respected industry veteran with over 15 years of wholesale and consumer lending experience, was appointed as Vice President of Sales, Powersports. The company also welcomed its first official class of interns.
Octane received awards for its culture and diversity, being named one of the Top 100 Companies for Diverse Representation by Mogul and Certified™ by Great Place to Work®. Additionally, its CEO and Co-Founder, Jason Guss, was recognized as one of the Top 50 Financial Technology CEOs of 2022 and a New York Entrepreneur Of The Year ® 2022 finalist.
“The start of 2022 has been a banner year for Octane and we’re only just beginning. We significantly grew our business, strengthened our dealer and OEM relationships, and helped connect even more people with their passions,” said Jason Guss, CEO of Octane. “Thank you to all of our employees, partners, and investors for helping us to reach so many milestones. I’m grateful for your continued support as we transform our industry and make buying better.”
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