How Caramel is changing the way you buy and sell used cars

With 45% of used vehicle sales happening between private parties and more than half at independent dealers, the $1T used car market desperately needed modern tooling. Caramel built a platform to simplify the entire transaction — titles, registration, payments, and everything in between.

When it comes to buying a used car, purchases are increasingly taking place between private parties and at independent dealerships. Cox Automotive estimates that 45% of used vehicle sales are neighbor-to-neighbor deals that bypass traditional dealers, and more than half of retail sales take place at independent dealers. While there’s been technological advancements in the way people find vehicles and list cars to sell, the process of actually purchasing a vehicle looks the same as it did 30 years ago, according to Ed Brojerdi and Craig Nehamen, the co-founders of car sale platform Caramel . "Private party [sales] is the wild wild west,” Brojerdi said. “It’s folks meeting up at a Walmart parking lot with a bag of cash.” With Caramel, Brojerdi and Nehamen, who both previously led auto leasing firm Fair.com, which was acquired by online car marketplace Shift in 2022, have created a way for buyers and sellers to take the traditionally complicated process of purchasing a car into an online transaction that takes just five minutes. And it brings a new level of safety and security to the car buying experience, the founders say. How it works : Caramel is a checkout tool that focuses on the transaction itself. For private party sales, the startup allows buyers and sellers to negotiate a price, complete the sale, and Caramel digitizes all aspects of the transaction—from signing title transfers to handling the registration. Caramel can properly verify both the buyer and seller, identify if there are any liens on the vehicle, offer financing to buyers, and deliver the vehicle once the transaction is complete. It can also identify potentially thorny items for buyers, like if the seller doesn't have a clean title, or if a car has unpaid parking tickets that are going to transfer with it. “It’s the approach of bringing all the safety and security of a franchise BMW dealer transaction, but putting it into a digital box,” Brojerdi said. For electric vehicle sales, Caramel is able to

By Jim Dallke at TechNexus Venture Collaborative