Securing private car deals: Seattle fintech startup aims to reduce fraud for used vehicle sales
Summary
Co-founder and CEO Andrew Crowell started his career as a software engineer and worked at various automotive companies, drawing on his passion for cars. While at TRED, Crowell and Hoetger learned about the prevalence of fraud in the private car sales market, where buyers and sellers interact directly. They founded KeySavvy in June to create a safer way for buyers and sellers to handle vehicle transactions so that both parties can focus on getting the best price, according to Crowell. As a licensed auto dealer, KeySavvy pulls records directly from state DMVs along with other third party sources to verify the identity of the seller and buyer, and ascertain the vehicle’s ownership history. There’s already a bunch of great websites — Tred, CarGurus, Craigslist, Facebook — that are all fantastic sites for listing your car for sale and finding a buyer.