Stephen McKay
The identity of the buyer in the recent eight-figure sale of a local technology firm has been revealed.
Illinois-based CCC Information Services paid $22 million to purchase DriveFactor, which is based at 5300 Hickory Park Drive in Henrico. That’s according to an announcement this week from investment banking firm Fairmount Partners, which represented DriveFactor in the sale.
The deal was first announced in April by Safeguard Scientifics, a Pennsylvania company that owned 41 percent of DriveFactor. But the identity of the buyer was not made public at the time.
DriveFactor was founded in 2010 and was previously known as Crimson Informatics. The company produces technologies for insurance companies to monitor driving behavior to help set policies.
In an interview last week, DriveFactor CEO Stephen McKay said the company’s new owner will help it grow.
“For DriveFactor to scale to grow to what is necessary to compete in the market, we knew that we needed to have access to significant resources,” McKay said. “The fit (with CCC) made a lot of sense.”
CCC develops software that auto insurers and body shops use when working on claims and repairs. It works with about 350 auto insurance carriers in the U.S. and 22,000 auto repair shops. CCC and its subsidiaries employ more than 1,500 people.
DriveFactor has 15 employees and its brand will continue to be used. The goal now is to combine each company’s technology to develop products that can report accidents to insurers as they are happening.
“It would be accident reporting in real time,” McKay said.
McKay said they have a product in the works that can detect the number of times a vehicle is struck, the level of impacts measured by g-force, the direction of the impacts and other factors. The information would go straight to an insurer, which could begin the claims process.
“We can tell what likely happened to the car,” McKay said. “Part of our secret sauce is it’s very complicated data.”
McKay said the auto insurance technology market is relatively young and fragmented, with an estimated value of about $160 million.
“Using measurements about how your car moves to save you money is relatively new,” McKay said. “If you can save some money, even a small percentage of that, it’s a really valuable thing.”
Stephen McKay
The identity of the buyer in the recent eight-figure sale of a local technology firm has been revealed.
Illinois-based CCC Information Services paid $22 million to purchase DriveFactor, which is based at 5300 Hickory Park Drive in Henrico. That’s according to an announcement this week from investment banking firm Fairmount Partners, which represented DriveFactor in the sale.
The deal was first announced in April by Safeguard Scientifics, a Pennsylvania company that owned 41 percent of DriveFactor. But the identity of the buyer was not made public at the time.
DriveFactor was founded in 2010 and was previously known as Crimson Informatics. The company produces technologies for insurance companies to monitor driving behavior to help set policies.
In an interview last week, DriveFactor CEO Stephen McKay said the company’s new owner will help it grow.
“For DriveFactor to scale to grow to what is necessary to compete in the market, we knew that we needed to have access to significant resources,” McKay said. “The fit (with CCC) made a lot of sense.”
CCC develops software that auto insurers and body shops use when working on claims and repairs. It works with about 350 auto insurance carriers in the U.S. and 22,000 auto repair shops. CCC and its subsidiaries employ more than 1,500 people.
DriveFactor has 15 employees and its brand will continue to be used. The goal now is to combine each company’s technology to develop products that can report accidents to insurers as they are happening.
“It would be accident reporting in real time,” McKay said.
McKay said they have a product in the works that can detect the number of times a vehicle is struck, the level of impacts measured by g-force, the direction of the impacts and other factors. The information would go straight to an insurer, which could begin the claims process.
“We can tell what likely happened to the car,” McKay said. “Part of our secret sauce is it’s very complicated data.”
McKay said the auto insurance technology market is relatively young and fragmented, with an estimated value of about $160 million.
“Using measurements about how your car moves to save you money is relatively new,” McKay said. “If you can save some money, even a small percentage of that, it’s a really valuable thing.”