Episode #1278: We’ve got Steve Greenfield joining the show today as a dealership-born AI platform lands a full cash exit and gears up for U.S. expansion—while China’s red-hot EV market hits a margin-crushing price war.
- A Dubai-born AI platform built by former dealership operators just scored a full cash exit. AlgoDriven has been acquired by San Francisco-based Emergence, delivering a full exit to investors including Oman Technology Fund, 500 Global, Social Capital, and Automotive Ventures.
- Founded in 2017, AlgoDriven provides AI tools for used-car appraisal, pricing, damage detection, and inquiry management—now used in 1,000+ dealerships across 10 countries.
- The platform analyzes over $25 billion in used vehicles annually and claims one in three used cars sold in Australia runs through its tech.
- The acquisition fuels expansion into the U.S. and Latin America while accelerating advanced AI development across valuation, inventory, and customer engagement.
- CEO Glenn Harwood said, “We built the product we wished we’d had ourselves… bringing data, intelligence, and automation to the used-car lifecycle—helping dealers price better, trade smarter and respond to customers faster.”
- China’s EV juggernaut is hitting turbulence. Even as BYD surpasses Tesla in global EV sales, investors are backing away. A brutal price war, shrinking subsidies, and 400 competing models have turned the world’s hottest EV market into what analysts are calling an industry “wartime” shakeout.
- BYD’s stock has fallen roughly 40% from its May peak, as January EV deliveries dropped 33% year-over-year and overall Chinese EV sales slid nearly 20%.
- Nearly 400 EV models are now for sale in China—more than double 2019 levels—with 100+ launched in just the past two years, fueling margin-crushing competition.
- Government incentives are fading. China reinstated half of its 10% vehicle purchase tax this year, with the full tax expected to return after 2027.
- Analysts estimate up to 40% of China’s auto production capacity is sitting unused, creating excess supply and accelerating the price spiral known locally as “involution.”
- Scott Kennedy of CSIS said the industry is entering a “wartime period,” predicting the field will shrink from hundreds of EV makers to just a handful long-term.
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