Providing Atlantic Canadians a Smarter Car Buying Experience

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When CarEvo was founded in 2021, they came to the Canadian market with a mission: to make car-buying easy, convenient and affordable for everyone. Headquartered in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, CarEvo’s founders were tired of how complicated it was for prospective buyers to qualify for and purchase a car. This rings especially true for Atlantic Canadians, who are often limited in their buying options and loan eligibility. CarEvo realized it was time to introduce their smart approach model to car shopping.

A key consideration for CarEvo was the need for a fintech partner to help them with their novel approach to car buying. That’s when Flinks showed up on their radar.

CHALLENGES:

Removing the manual labour associated with collecting and submitting identification and banking documents.
Streamlining the car buying process while increasing accessibility and eligibility for potential buyers

SOLUTIONS:

Flinks aggregator helping with KYC for identity, account verification for payment setup and transactions for income validation and underwriting
Flinks Express – a hosted solution that provides CarEvo with a dedicated url (hosting Flinks) that can be easily sent to prospective buyers so they can quickly submit their relevant documents digitally

“What Flinks offered us was an unparalleled opportunity to be able to collect information in such a quick and easy way that it really revolutionized the way that we’re selling cars.”
– Matthew Piro, Sales Manager at CarEvo

CarEvo was faced with three major challenges:

Accessibility

Access to cars, especially for clients in rural Atlantic Canada, is limited. Dealerships can’t reach many of these areas, leaving buyers with limited to almost non-existent car buying options.

Eligibility

Many applicants are seasonal workers who would otherwise be excluded from the opportunity to purchase cars. With car ownership a necessity in many of these areas, many are left without fair options.

Labor-intensive

Procuring documents and organizing financial information in order to submit applications for loans would lead to drop offs and lost sales.

With traditional car buying relying on the manual collection and submission of documents and information, time and wages can be lost. Not to mention the car itself being sold to someone else. This is where CarEvo realized that digitization could change the game for car ownership in Atlantic Canada.

Solutions powered by Flinks

Streamlining and simplifying car sales

CarEvo’s integrated application includes Flinks as a core component within the system. When CarEvo sends applicants to a link hosting Flinks, clients are able to use this link to quickly connect their financial accounts. From there, the CarEvo sales team takes over by forwarding all of the information that has been quickly and correctly submitted in one place directly to banks and lenders. Clients are then almost immediately qualified for loans and matched with the perfect car that fits their budget.

Gone is the time that would’ve been otherwise wasted trying to chase down financial documents, sending separate banking and lender links to access bank statements, and then organizing the plethora of information. In its place is a simplified and streamlined process that allows the CarEvo team to instead focus on matching their qualified client with the ideal car to be delivered to them in 24 hours.

“Time is so valuable to us. And that was the biggest thing that Flinks provided for us, is the extra time to do what we need to do to get the car sold.”
– Matthew Piro, Sales Manager at CarEvo

Increased eligibility and accessibility

Car ownership is an important lifeline for many people, especially those living in rural areas or areas not served by public transportation. CarEvo’s digital evolution with Flinks has helped them reach an even larger portion of the Atlantic Canadian population that would otherwise be ineligible, especially if they’re seasonal workers.

With Flinks, CarEvo is able to connect directly to an applicant’s bank account. This allows them to show the banks not only an applicant’s earnings while they’re working, but their earnings while they’re on unemployment insurance, for example. This direct and real-time connection gives CarEvo the ability to present three, six or twelve months of bank statements in order to satisfy the bank’s criteria and get clients fairly approved.

There is also the issue of rural accessibility. In rural areas, access to brick and mortar banks is often hours away. Even then, customer access to their banking information can be hampered by limited working hours, meaning they would have to take time away from work to get to the bank. Combine these limitations with the small number of local dealerships and inventory, and you’ve got a large segment of the population unfairly excluded from car ownership.

Thanks to how quickly and easily CarEvo is able to collect banking information and send them off for loan approvals with their Flinks powered system, they are able to get cars to qualified clients and have them on the road quicker than their competitors. Qualified rural buyers are no longer restricted in their car options because of where they live or the kind of work they do.

Increasing sales and boosting company growth

By digitizing the car buying process and partnering with an experienced financial data aggregator like Flinks, CarEvo has been able to gain a distinctive edge over their competition. Since partnering with Flinks and introducing their innovative approach to car buying, CarEvo has seen their sales skyrocket and their company almost quadruple in size.

“Our growth has been really exponential over the last two years, but it’s to the point where even the next best subprime car dealership in Atlantic Canada, doesn’t even do 50% of the production that we do, and it’s because of how we’re able to get things done.”
– Matthew Piro, Sales Manager at CarEvo

This business model not only survived during the pandemic, but it thrived. By taking the leap and embracing digital financial innovation, CarEvo has been able to continue growing with an eye of expanding to Eastern Canada.

“It’s systems like Flinks that allow you to innovate and be on the cutting edge of your field.”
-Matthew Piro, Sales Manager at CarEvo

Key takeaways:

Exponential growth thanks to ease of use. CarEvo has been able to outsell their competition because they’ve gone digital and simplified car-buying
No more time wasted on manual financial document collection and submissions
Increasing accessibility to rural Canadians who would otherwise not be able to qualify or get access to cars

“In terms of customer service, Flinks has been absolutely amazing. The service itself, it’s been an absolute pleasure. Anyone else in a similar situation? I would definitely suggest Flinks. Just not our competitors “
– Matthew Piro, Sales Manager at CarEvo