Tekion, Increase and Core Bank Launch Embedded Banking for Auto Retail
Tekion, Increase, and Core Bank have announced the launch of an embedded banking solution designed specifically for automotive dealerships, bringing banking and payment capabilities directly into Tekion’s Automotive Retail Cloud (ARC). The new offering, known as Tekion Spend, is designed to help dealerships manage accounts, payments, deposits, and reconciliation without relying on separate banking portals and disconnected financial systems.
Built on Increase’s financial infrastructure and offered in partnership with Core Bank, Tekion Spend is positioned as a fully embedded banking solution created specifically for the operational requirements of automotive retailers. The companies say the solution represents a new approach to dealership financial management by connecting banking activity directly with the dealership’s existing system of record.
Tekion’s ARC platform is designed as an AI-native automotive retail platform that brings together multiple dealership departments within a unified environment. The platform currently supports more than 2,000 dealerships, according to the company. With Tekion Spend, the company is expanding its platform beyond dealership management software into embedded financial services.
Addressing a Complex Dealership Payment Environment
Automotive dealerships manage large volumes of financial transactions every day. Payments can involve vehicle manufacturers, parts suppliers, service providers, vendors, employees, customers, lenders, and numerous other business partners.
A single dealership can make hundreds of thousands of payments over the course of a year. Despite the increasing digitization of dealership operations, many of these financial processes continue to depend on traditional banking tools and manual reconciliation.
Historically, dealership employees have needed to operate an external bank account separately from their dealership management system. Payments are often initiated through a bank portal or through physical checks, while the corresponding transactions are later entered or reconciled inside the dealership management system.
This separation can create additional administrative work. Employees may need to move between different platforms to review invoices, authorize payments, check transaction status, and reconcile accounting records. At the end of a reporting period, dealership accounting teams may also spend significant time matching payments with invoices and ledger entries.
Tekion Spend is intended to reduce this fragmentation by bringing banking capabilities directly into ARC.
Banking Embedded Directly Into ARC
With Tekion Spend, dealerships can open a fully featured bank account in their own name while remaining within the ARC environment. The solution is designed to provide several core banking and payment functions without requiring users to manage separate banking infrastructure.
According to Tekion, dealerships using the service will be able to open an FDIC-insured bank account, hold deposits, and earn on their balances. They can also send money using U.S. payment rails and track the status of payments throughout the transaction process.
Another important feature is real-time reconciliation. Rather than waiting until the end of a month to reconcile banking transactions with dealership records, the platform is designed to connect payments and accounting information as transactions occur.
The solution also enables dealerships to manage multiple rooftops from a single account. This capability could be particularly relevant for dealer groups operating several locations, where financial teams often need to oversee transactions across multiple dealership entities.
By bringing these functions into the dealership management environment, Tekion aims to make banking another integrated component of daily automotive retail operations rather than a separate workflow.
Connecting Invoices, Payments and Accounting
One of the central ideas behind Tekion Spend is the connection between financial transactions and dealership operational data.
In a traditional environment, an invoice may exist in one system, a payment may be initiated through a bank portal, and the resulting accounting entry may appear in another system. These systems can communicate with one another, but the processes may still require reconciliation after the transaction has taken place.
Tekion says its embedded approach is designed to treat the invoice, payment, and ledger entry as a connected object.
Jamie Fox, General Manager of Fintech at Tekion, said Tekion Spend gives dealerships a fully featured bank account inside their existing system of record. Fox said the platform can connect the invoice, payment, and ledger entry rather than treating them as separate systems that report information after the fact.
This integration could help reduce repetitive data entry and give dealership employees greater visibility into payment activity. It also reflects the broader trend of software companies integrating financial services directly into industry-specific business applications.
Increase Provides Banking Infrastructure
The technology behind Tekion Spend is being provided by Increase, a financial infrastructure company that enables technology businesses to build financial products through APIs.
Increase provides the infrastructure that allows Tekion to connect its software environment with banking and payment capabilities. The companies say the platform provides access to Federal Reserve data and capabilities through APIs.
Increase is the exclusive provider of Tekion Spend for accounts and non-card money movement, according to the announcement.
The partnership illustrates how financial infrastructure providers can allow software companies to develop specialized banking products without building an entire banking infrastructure stack themselves.
Jack Flintermann Reed, Head of Product at Increase, said the company focuses on helping technology businesses build financial products and bring them to market quickly.
According to Reed, before the full Tekion Spend product was developed, Tekion created an initial working prototype using Increase APIs in less than three weeks. The rapid prototyping process highlights the role that API-based financial infrastructure can play in enabling vertical software companies to add banking services to their platforms.
Core Bank Provides Banking Services
While Increase supplies the technology infrastructure, Core Bank provides the banking services associated with Tekion Spend.
The banking relationship is important because dealerships require regulated financial institutions to hold their funds and provide banking services. Tekion Spend banking products and services are provided by Core Bank, which is a Member FDIC institution.
Lindsay Borgeson, President of Core X, said Core Bank is pleased to work with Tekion to provide financial services to the automotive retail market. Borgeson highlighted Tekion’s understanding of dealership operations and said the partnership is intended to provide dealerships with greater value while giving customers the confidence associated with having their funds held by a regulated financial institution.
The companies’ respective roles are clearly defined. Core Bank provides the banking products and services, while Increase provides technology services. Tekion provides the automotive retail software environment through ARC.
Tekion itself is not a bank.
Accounts Payable Is the Starting Point
The initial focus of Tekion Spend is accounts payable, an area where dealerships handle significant numbers of transactions.
Accounts payable includes payments to suppliers, vendors, service providers, and other business partners. Bringing these payments into ARC can allow dealership employees to work with invoices and payment processes within the same software environment.
However, Tekion says accounts payable is only the first stage of its broader embedded banking strategy.
The automotive retail industry contains numerous other financial flows that could potentially be integrated into a dealership management platform. These include floorplan financing, service transactions, vehicle sales, finance and insurance activities, payroll, and other dealership-related payments.
The companies say dealerships move billions of dollars each year to manage floorplans alone. These transactions are currently handled through separate systems and financial portals.
Tekion’s longer-term goal is to bring more of these financial flows into ARC, potentially reducing the number of external financial platforms dealership employees need to use.
Potential Expansion Across Dealership Operations
The automotive retail business involves multiple departments, each with its own financial processes.
Sales departments handle vehicle purchases and transactions with customers. Service departments process repair orders, parts purchases, labor payments, and customer transactions. Finance and insurance departments manage financing-related activity and other financial products. Dealership groups also have payroll and corporate accounting requirements.
Each process can generate payments and financial records.
By embedding banking into ARC, Tekion is seeking to create a common financial infrastructure that can support these different activities. The company says dealerships could eventually manage a large portion of their funds flows from within the same platform they use to manage their day-to-day retail operations.
This approach could also provide dealership management teams with a more centralized view of financial activity. Instead of relying on multiple banking portals and disconnected systems, financial information could increasingly be available through the dealership’s primary software environment.
Supporting Multi-Rooftop Dealer Groups
The ability to manage multiple rooftops from a single account is another important aspect of the solution.
Large dealer groups can operate numerous dealerships across different locations and brands. Managing banking relationships, payment processes, and reconciliation across multiple entities can create additional administrative complexity.
Tekion Spend is designed to give these organizations a centralized environment for managing dealership funds flows.
This does not necessarily eliminate the need for entity-level accounting or financial controls, but it can provide a unified interface for financial operations. Centralized visibility can be particularly useful for dealership groups that have dedicated accounting, treasury, or finance teams overseeing multiple locations.
A Broader Shift Toward Embedded Financial Services
The launch of Tekion Spend also reflects a broader movement toward embedded financial services in business software.
Rather than requiring businesses to leave an operational platform to access financial products, embedded banking allows financial services to become part of the software workflow itself.
For automotive dealerships, this model can be especially relevant because financial transactions are closely connected to operational activity. An invoice generates a payment. A payment generates an accounting entry. A transaction can affect cash balances and financial reporting.
Connecting these events within one platform can potentially reduce the amount of manual coordination required between operational and financial systems.
Tekion is applying this concept specifically to automotive retail, where dealerships have complex payment requirements and large transaction volumes.
Availability in the United States
Tekion Spend is scheduled to become available to U.S. dealerships using ARC beginning in the fourth quarter.
The initial launch will focus on accounts and non-card money movement, with accounts payable representing the first major use case. Tekion has indicated that the company intends to expand embedded banking capabilities over time to address additional financial workflows across automotive retail.
The collaboration between Tekion, Increase, and Core Bank combines an automotive retail software platform, financial infrastructure technology, and regulated banking services.
For dealerships, the immediate objective is to bring banking and accounts payable closer to the operational systems already used to run their businesses. Over the longer term, Tekion’s strategy could extend embedded financial services across more areas of dealership operations, potentially creating a more unified environment for managing money alongside sales, service, finance, inventory, and accounting.
As automotive retailers continue adopting cloud-based dealership management platforms, the integration of banking and payment functions represents another step toward consolidating dealership workflows into fewer systems. Tekion Spend is designed to make that integration available directly within ARC while maintaining the involvement of a regulated banking institution and specialized financial infrastructure provider.
About Tekion
Tekion is redefining automotive retail with its end-to-end AI-native, platform purpose-built for the industry. By embedding AI into every workflow, Tekion delivers intelligent automation, real-time insights, and advanced decision support – driving efficiency, revenue, and modern consumer experiences. As the first and fastest cloud-native platform for automotive, Tekion brings OEMs, dealers, partners, and consumers together through its revolutionary suite: Automotive Retail Cloud (ARC) for retailers, Automotive Enterprise Cloud (AEC) for manufacturers and large automotive enterprises, and Automotive Partner Cloud (APC) for technology and industry partners. With AI-powered, cloud-native technology, Tekion enables the most seamless, transparent, and profitable retail experiences in the industry.
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