A new digital solutions service has been launched with the aim of mitigating some of the challenges the automotive sector has battled for years, including fraud, high costs and deteriorating consumer creditworthiness.

Kredo Mobility, unveiled by industry veteran and Kredo Mobility founder and CEO Kriben Reddy, has ambitions to reshape the local automotive sector by making mobility more accessible and affordable for consumers, and more efficient and effective for dealers and the broader ecosystem, through a unified data view that could improve dealer decision-making power tenfold and enhance competitiveness in a rapidly evolving market.

The new digital solutions service will streamline processes, identify the right customers quickly, reduce fraud, offer a unified single view of customers and vehicles and provide real-time pricing information for vehicles.

While South Africa’s automotive industry has evolved and developed significantly over the past two decades, many gaps still remain in the market, leaving the industry under significant pressure amid declining sales volumes and high fixed costs, he says.

“What we need is a more competitive, transparent and consumer-friendly automotive market that makes the entire ecosystem from dealer to consumer stronger, more efficient and more sustainable. We want to help dealers grow and reduce costs, and see consumers benefit from a fairer and more competitive environment.”

Reddy explains that, as dealers struggle to access comprehensive, consolidated insights that combine vehicle and customer information, a more competitive and cohesive data landscape in the industry will reduce verification costs, foster innovation and improve operational efficiency.

“One of the capabilities we offer is early identification, qualification and verification of the customer at point of need. This enables dealers to understand everything that they need to know at that point in time about that individual’s potential risk or fraud.”

This extends to whether a customer can qualify for finance or potentially be considered for an alternative product, as deteriorating consumer creditworthiness limits affordability and reduces success rates in vehicle financing.

Data shows that only around 15% of finance applications convert into actual deals, placing pressure on dealers to identify high-quality prospects from the outset.

However, while a customer many not qualify for vehicle finance, they can potentially be considered for an alternative product, such as a long-term rental, a subscription-based type of product or a lease type of an agreement.

“By consolidating vehicle and customer data into a single, comprehensive view, we give dealers a powerful tool to streamline operations and make more confident decisions. At the same time, as verification costs rise, many dealers have been forced to reduce the number of checks they perform, leaving them vulnerable to fraud. Our robust fraud prevention tools address this issue by identifying and eliminating risks early in the process,” he says.

The platform is able to detect a number of different data points on a consumer and a vehicle up front, which helps to prevent fraud.

He cites the example of two potential fraud cases recently detected and prevented – a vehicle finance deal and a vehicle rental agreement, where Kredo Mobility’s system found identity impersonation in both deals.

“These are two real examples of where the fraud mitigation was almost R2-million, for two different customers and two different use cases, one on vehicle finance and one on rental, where it was actually stopped.”

Reddy points out that many dealers often use five to ten platforms as sources of data, and, with limited human resources, there are many gaps.

“You cannot get to your customer in the quickest time frame that you need to. You cannot price those cars immediately. The fragmentation also drives down that dealer’s level or ability to compete in an industry where every dealer needs to be as effective as they can,” he continues.

The fragmented way that dealers operate, as well as the unintended consequences of high costs and data monopoly, means that there is a higher burden on their resources, which slows decision-making and opens a loophole for fraud, including the impersonation of a legitimate customer or a fraudulent or cloned vehicle.

“We fall back on data and technology to make sure the dealer does not miss anything in their process and is always covered.”

Another service on offer is a valuation of vehicles – a trade value, a retail value and a market value – that can be used across the industry.

Values for vehicles are often based on national averages used by all players within the ecosystem.

“The challenge is that the market in South Africa has evolved immensely in terms of the variety of brands, the different derivatives, competition and depreciation that can differ from one brand to another, and each of these industries effectively has to model that data differently.”

Variables such as supply, demand, vehicle colour, vehicle quality and condition and the region, besides others, also play a significant factor in pricing.

“One of the services we provide is a more real-time market view of that vehicle, and it could be broken down by regional segmentation.

The reason why we focused on these challenges – identify the right customers quickly, reduce fraud, offer a unified single view of customers and vehicles and provide real-time pricing information for vehicles – is that there is actually two winners in every single one. If you solve these problems effectively enough, the dealer wins and the consumer wins.”