Delivers Superior, Seamless Buying Experience for Trailer Consumers and Dealers

NEW YORK, January 13, 2021 — Octane™ (Octane Lending Inc.®), the fintech revolutionizing the buying experience for major recreational purchases, today announced its entrance into the trailer market. Going forward, customers and dealers of consumer trailers can take advantage of Octane’s fast and easy digital lending experience for open and enclosed units. Octane’s trailer program is live in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, with more states rolling out in the coming weeks and months.

Before Octane’s market entry, lending in the $5 billion trailer vertical was largely decentralized, manual, and ripe for digital disruption. Given Octane’s success in the powersports and outdoor power equipment markets where many dealers also offer trailers, the company will leverage its existing network of over 4,000 dealers during its initial launch. Octane will also expand its reach to dealers in adjacent markets, such as agriculture, RV, and marine, which also offer trailers.

As trailer purchases are largely cash-driven and Octane is a prime lender that covers a wider range of customers than other national lenders, there is significant potential for Octane to grow its customer base while enabling deserving customers to enhance their buying power. This broad credit coverage also benefits dealers by allowing them to provide a path to purchase for even more customers. Through its in-house lender Roadrunner Financial, Inc.^®, Octane provides full-spectrum credit coverage for prime, first-time, and credit-worthy customers just outside the traditional “prime” range, making financing passion purchases through Octane’s digital-to-retail experience fast, seamless, and as simple as cash. 

“We’re excited to expand our presence in outdoor power equipment to help connect even more people with their passions and fuel our customers’ lifestyles,” said Jason Guss, CEO of Octane. “The trailer market provides significant untapped potential for our company to grow while enabling customers and dealers to benefit from a faster, easier, and more enjoyable buying experience.”

Octane’s customer-centric digital financing platform offers a superior customer experience by enabling customers to upload documentation and complete their applications online, saving customers time at the dealership. 

Octane helps its OEM partners bring digital retail to life by enabling consumers to prequalify for financing on OEM websites, which directs web visitors into the transaction flow and drives incremental, qualified buyers to dealerships.

NEW YORK, Aug. 5, 2021 — Octane™ (Octane Lending Inc.®), the industry leader in digital products supporting consumers, dealerships, and OEMs throughout the buying journey for major recreational purchases, today announced it has raised $52 million in Series D funding. Progressive Investment Company, Inc., a member of the Progressive Insurance ® group, led the round, with participation from existing investors Valar Ventures, Upper90, Contour Venture Partners, Citi Ventures, Third Prime and Parkwood as well as new investors Gaingels and ALIVE. This brings the company’s valuation to over $900 million with over $192 million in total equity funding raised to date.

The new round of financing will further Octane’s mission to connect people with their passion. Octane is the only fintech in its verticals that enables transactions from start to finish, including editorial content, consumer prequalification tools, instant full-spectrum financing and digital deal closing. Octane is growing quickly because it makes purchases faster and simpler for consumers and dealers. The new capital will be used to scale Octane’s buying solution for consumers shopping for powersports vehicles online, grow its family of 3,800 dealership partners and 40 OEM and brand partners—which include BRP, Suzuki, and Triumph Motorcycles—and expand to adjacent markets.

“We’re thrilled to embark on the next phase of growth backed by Progressive Insurance and our existing partners, who wholeheartedly believe in our mission of connecting people with their passion,” said CEO Jason Guss. “We are winning in the market because we offer a faster lending experience that also covers more consumers than competitors, and we engage shoppers earlier in the process to streamline transactions.”

Octane makes major recreational purchases seamless by adding value at each stage in the buying journey. Octane does this by inspiring and informing enthusiasts through media brands such as Cycle World and UTV Driver, acquired in 2020 along with five other titles, prequalifying consumers instantly on dealer and OEM websites and helping consumers find a dealership for a simple closing experience. Partnerships with select OEMs enable Octane to offer loans with promotional rates through its in-house lender, Roadrunner Financial.

“We’re excited for the opportunity to invest in Octane,” said Andrew Quigg, Chief Strategy Officer at Progressive Insurance. “Technology and consumers’ needs continue to evolve and Octane’s point-of-sale loan origination platform provides benefits to consumers and dealerships in a specialty segment of the lending market. We like to partner with innovative, forward-thinking companies and believe that our investment in Octane aligns very well with this strategy.”

When embedded on partnered dealership and OEM websites, Octane’s prequalification product has a customer Net Promoter Score of 90 and has increased conversion rates by as much as 7X. Meanwhile, Octane’s point-of-sale offerings enable finance managers at dealerships to close installment loans in as few as five minutes. Octane expects to originate over $1 billion in the next 12 months, has doubled revenue annually for three years, and is net-income and cash-flow positive.