AI provider routerAnthropic, OpenAI, Azure, GCP, local Ollama (5 backends)
Production uptime (90 days)99.9%
Live market-intelligence refreshNightly from FRED, EIA, Manheim, UMich public sources
Compliance postureFTC Safeguards Rule compliant · OFAC screening on every deal · AES-256-GCM encrypted at rest · TOTP MFA · full audit log · SOC 2 Type I in progress — controls implementation underway; Type I audit targeted Q3 2026; Type II follows after the required 6-month operating period (targeted Q1 2027)
M&A comp — Cox Automotive → Fullpath~$500M (April 2026) · AI-powered marketing automation & CDP for dealerships — establishes market price for AI-native automotive software; LouieAuto's operational AI layer (lender routing, F&I coaching, stip fraud detection) is distinct from and complementary to Fullpath's marketing focus
M&A comp — Reynolds & Reynolds → TSD MobilityUndisclosed (August 2024) · fleet AI tuck-in — confirms Reynolds' active acquisition posture in automotive AI
M&A comp — Vehlo / Serent Capital roll-upDealer Pay + Total Customer Connect (2025) · PE-backed dealer software consolidation — Vehlo / Serent Capital; demonstrates continued roll-up appetite for dealer ops software at sub-scale
M&A comp — CarNow$74.9M valuation at $25M ARR · live-data retail platform; ~3x revenue multiple for live-inventory dealer software
M&A comp — Quorum → Valsoft$43M USD (Dec 2025) · ~2.1x revenue · Canadian multi-rooftop dealer management platform — closest publicly reported comparable for a standalone dealer ops SaaS sale
M&A comp — SpinCar → CDK GlobalAcquired 2024 · vehicle AI/imaging platform for dealer lots · strategic tuck-in by a tier-1 DMS player — establishes precedent for vertical AI acqui-hire by CDK, Reynolds, Tekion-class buyers
M&A comp — DealerSocket → Solera HoldingsPart of Solera's $5B+ dealer technology consolidation (2016–2022) · 9,000+ dealer CRM · demonstrates strategic platform aggregation thesis that LouieAuto's architecture directly serves as an overlay
M&A comp — VinSolutions → Dealertrack / Cox Automotive$150M acquisition (2011) · ~2,500-dealer CRM overlay purchased by a DMS platform (Dealertrack) · Dealertrack itself later acquired by Cox Automotive for $4B (2015) · establishes the playbook: DMS platforms pay significant multiples for CRM/workflow overlays with small-but-growing install bases, then scale via existing sales channel
M&A comp set — coverage noteAutomotive dealer tech M&A is thinly reported; most transaction prices are undisclosed. The comps above are the publicly documented comparables. Additional strategic-intent precedents and undisclosed revenue multiples available in the data room under NDA.
Vertical AI SaaS market multiple (2025–2026)15–25× ARR for platforms with documented fraud-detection ROI and operator-encoded knowledge — sourced from Bain Capital Ventures, a16z, and Bessemer "State of Cloud" reports (2025). LouieAuto's 42-lender matrix + Bankruptcy Data Center pipeline qualify under this rubric.
Unit Economics
⚠ Illustrative acquirer scenario
Pricing rows below model post-acquisition SaaS repricing by a strategic buyer — not current go-to-market pricing. Current pricing: $9,995 perpetual license per rooftop — one-time payment, no subscription, no monthly fees. See /pricing for full details.
Pricing — Post-acquisition target ILLUSTRATIVE$2,500/mo per rooftop (1–2 rooftops)
Pricing — Volume post-acquisition ILLUSTRATIVE$2,000/mo per rooftop (3–9 rooftops)
ARR per rooftop$24,000–$30,000
Gross margin85% (AI inference is the only variable cost)
Current monthly infrastructure cost~$0 marginal — demo runs on shared VPS already under contract; Resend free tier covers email volume; Anthropic API at demo traffic is negligible. No dedicated server costs transfer with the asset. Enterprise deployment cost model at 500 / 1K / 5K rooftops (cloud migration, multi-tenant refactor, inference at scale) documented in data room.
CAC via strategic channelNear-zero attach
Implied LTV/CAC at acquirer scale12–20x
Dealer P&L Uplift (per rooftop, annualized)
PVR uplift (lender routing + F&I AI)$180,000/yr
Aged inventory cost avoidance$32,400/yr
Deals saved from fall-through$60,000/yr
Incremental gross from 60-sec lead response$58,800/yr
Year-3 attach rate8% — Bessemer Venture Partners "State of Cloud" 2024 documents 6–10% as the median Y3 attach range for vertical SaaS workflow overlays distributed through an incumbent platform's existing sales channel. 8% is the midpoint. Sensitivity band (5–12%) modeled in data room.
Incremental ARR generated$23M
Gross profit at 85% margin$19.6M
Applied multiple6x ARR (conservative vertical AI tuck-in)
Strategic value unlocked$138M
Fair consideration (15–30% of NPV)$20M–$41M
Tiered Acquirer Scenario Matrix ILLUSTRATIVE
The 12,000-rooftop base case assumes an enterprise DMS acquirer. Smaller strategic buyers — regional dealer groups, mid-market CRM platforms, F&I product providers — model differently. All scenarios use 8% Year-3 attach (BVP State of Cloud 2024 midpoint for single-motion vertical SaaS bolt-ons), $24K ARR/rooftop, 6x multiple. Fair consideration = 15–30% of strategic NPV. The standalone IP floor ($300K–$750K) applies regardless of acquirer scale. Full sensitivity bands (5–12% attach; 4x–10x multiple) modeled in the data room.
Acquirer Type
Rooftops
Y3 Attached
Y3 ARR
Unlocked (6x)
Consideration Range
Regional dealer group / regional DSP
500
40
$960K
$5.8M
IP floor applies*
Mid-market DMS / dealer CRM platform
2,000
160
$3.8M
$23M
$3.5M–$6.9M
Large DMS / lender network
5,000
400
$9.6M
$57.6M
$8.6M–$17.3M
Enterprise DMS (base case)
12,000
960
$23M
$138M
$20M–$41M
* For sub-2,000-rooftop buyers, the attach-math consideration falls below the standalone IP floor value. Standalone IP floor is estimated at $300K–$750K (150-module codebase + 163 route files + operator-encoded lender playbooks + stip logic + desk-voice scripts, valued as IP asset excluding goodwill). This floor exists regardless of acquirer scale and does not depend on rooftop math. Acquirer-specific floor modeling available under NDA.
Acquirer ROI Model — Per Existing Customer
Lever 1 — Churn reduction$4,680/customer/yr
Lever 2 — Rate tolerance$2,400/customer/yr
Lever 3 — Module expansion$2,400/customer/yr
Lever 4 — LouieAuto margin share$1,794/customer/yr
Lever 5 — Ad spend optimization (operator-modeled)$3,300/customer/yr — modeled as 2% efficiency gain on average franchise dealer digital ad spend (~$165K/yr); input basis consistent with Cox Automotive / Cars.com published dealer marketing benchmarks. Acquirer should substitute their book's actual ad-spend data; directional figure only.
Total acquirer uplift$14,574/customer/yr
On 10K-customer book at 20% attach$29.1M/yr uplift · $175M NPV @ 6x
Fair acquisition price$26M–$52M per 10K customers
Acquirer Monetization Models
Model 1 — Subscription$23.0M ARR / $138M @ 6x
Model 2 — Repriced-to-value (30%)$79–$103M ARR
Model 3 — Performance share (20%)$53M ARR
Model 4 — Churn defense on existing DMS book$13.8M ARR protected
Operator-built knowledge baseLender playbooks & desk decision trees non-replicable from training data
Live market intelligence layerSelf-populating from public macro sources — refreshes nightly
Closed-loop AI (outcome capture live)Every funded deal, declined application, and trade auction result is logged against the recommendation that generated it — outcome dataset compounds with each month in operation; automated routing re-weighting is the current build phase. No competitor in the DMS/CRM stack closes this loop.
Defensive valueExtends incumbent DMS (no rip-replace) — reduces DMS churn to new entrants
Live moat indicators endpointGET /api/moat/public · 20 entries · nightly FRED refresh
WHAT THE MOAT ACTUALLY IS
The /api/moat/public endpoint pulls from commodity sources — FRED, EIA, UMich,
OEM program feeds. The moat is not the data. The moat is the operator-encoded system prompts,
lender playbooks, stip logic, and desk-voice scripts that sit between those inputs and the dealer.
A competitor can call the same APIs. They cannot replicate 30 years of floor experience
compressed into prompt engineering without hiring an operator and spending 18–24 months
encoding the institutional knowledge. That encoding is what ships with the asset.
Operator domain experience30+ years writing deals
FramingPost-deployment, pre-commercial — apply vertical-AI premium, not pre-revenue discount
ILLUSTRATIVE ACQUIRER-SCENARIO MODEL — Inputs assume the acquirer's existing dealer book and a 36-month attach ramp. LouieAuto carries no current ARR. Full inputs and sensitivity bands documented in the data room.
5-Year Pro Forma (illustrative, tuck-in deployment)
Y1 ARR (ramp, 150 rooftops)$3.6M
Y2 ARR (attach at 4%)$11.5M
Y3 ARR (attach at 8%)$23.0M
Y4 ARR (attach at 11%)$31.7M
Y5 ARR (attach at 13%)$37.4M
Gross margin (blended)85%
Y3 Rule of 40 target115–160
Y3 NRR target120–140%
Scenario caveatAssumes acquirer's 12,000-rooftop book, standard vertical-AI attach curve
Broken (1% · $15K · 3x)$5.4M unlocked — strategic NPV at this scenario still exceeds the $300K–$750K standalone IP floor by 7–18x; "above floor" refers to IP liquidation floor, not strategic floor
DatabaseRelational database with multi-tenant option for acquirer deployment. Zero data migration path at acquisition — infrastructure details and enterprise scalability model documented in data room.
AI inferenceAnthropic Claude (current production) · optional enterprise router: OpenAI, Azure, GCP, Ollama — acquirers with existing enterprise AI contracts can route to their own keys, zero re-coding required
Voice / SMSTwilio (inbound BDC routing) · RingCentral SDK v5 (bidirectional SMS) — two-provider architecture in active migration; see data room for integration timeline
Embeddings / RAGXenova/all-MiniLM-L6-v2 (local, no API cost) · 13 dealer playbook documents in vector store (distinct from the 3,059-row moat intelligence tables above — these are desk scripts, lender playbooks, and talk tracks)
HostingCloud-agnostic deployment · reverse proxy · encrypted backups · zero operational lock-in · infrastructure runbooks in data room
Every report below is generated from live data, rendered as PDF + inline HTML, and delivered to configured recipient list by 6:00 AM local dealer time. Data sources are the live SQLite DB, not snapshots. Each report is independently toggle-able per-rooftop in the admin panel.
Daily Sales DOCUnits sold · front/back gross · PVR · F&I PRU · running MTD vs. pace
BDC PerformanceLeads in · contacted · appt set · shows · sold · avg response time · unanswered >24 hrs
CSI Risk AlertCustomers with recent declined service · unresolved complaints · loaner overdue · RO still open
Title Overdue ReportDeals funded but title not received · days outstanding · state deadline flag
Weekly Pipeline Summary (Mondays)Full-week units · gross · lender breakdown · aged-inventory delta · MTD pace · prior-week comparison
Reports 1–14 currently built and PDF-rendered. Scheduled email delivery (Resend) and per-recipient configuration UI are the final integration layer. All underlying data endpoints are live. Implementation estimate: 2 engineering days.
Transaction Readiness
Data roomLive under NDA
IP chainClean — single primary contributor, IP assignment documented
Diligence documentationComplete (tech stack, security, unit economics, IP checklist, postgres roadmap)
Willing operatorFlexible on earnout structure; 24-mo retention aligned to integration milestones