Solifi has made its third acquisition in 14 months, acquiring Inovatec and adding retail automotive and power sports loan origination technology to a secured finance platform that already spans equipment, wholesale and working capital finance. Inovatec, founded nearly 20 years ago by Vladimir Kovacevic and his spouse, Daniela, brings its Propel origination and loan management system, along with a roughly 160-person team based primarily in Vancouver and Serbia.
Monitor Editor-in-Chief Rita Garwood spoke with Solifi CEO Dan Corazzi and Kovacevic about the strategy behind the deal, how the companies plan to integrate their technology and teams, and what it means for customers on both sides. The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Watch the full episode below or listen on Spotify
Rita Garwood: Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the podcast. I’m Rita Garwood, editor-in-chief of Monitor and ABF Journal. Joining me today are Dan Corazzi and Vladimir Kovacevic. Dan, can you tell us a little about yourself?
Dan Corazzi: Sure. My name is Dan Corazzi. I’m the CEO of Solifi. I’ve held that role for the last two years, and I’ve spent my entire career in technology — 35 years, the last 27 in software — with significant experience in banking, capital markets and other areas relevant to this industry. It’s great to be here.
Garwood: Great to have you. Vlad, how about you?
Vladimir Kovacevic: Hey, everybody. My name is Vlad, and I’m the co-founder of Inovatec — well, prior to the acquisition, I suppose. I co-founded the company with my spouse, Daniela. Time flies; we’ve been doing this for almost 20 years now, always focused on technology and software for asset-based lending, predominantly automotive and power sports, and a bit of equipment as well.
Garwood: So that leads to my first question for you both: We’re talking about the acquisition between Solifi and Inovatec today. What was the specific gap in Solifi’s platform that made this acquisition the right move, rather than building retail automotive origination in-house?
Kovacevic: Sure.
Corazzi: When we look at acquisitions, we look at three areas: products and where they can fill gaps, vertical segment, and geography. We did that in our previous two acquisitions as well, and that forms the thesis of where we want to blend organic growth with inorganic growth — specifically as it pertains to auto retail. We had a gap there. Our heritage, going all the way back to the IDS days, has long been rooted in the equipment space. We’ve grown our wholesale group significantly, both organically and through the DataScan acquisition, and then working capital. From an auto retail perspective, quite honestly, it was both a product gap and a geography gap in North America. Ultimately, what Vlad and I want to do is take this cloud-leading solution across the globe in the years to come. That’s the thesis behind it. Vlad, do you want to share your perspective on what you were looking for?
Kovacevic: It’s very much the same thing. We were looking for a partner that could help us scale and grow globally and accelerate our growth in North America — somebody for whom what we do was a gap, rather than a company with competing products that overlap a lot, because that leads to a more complex integration. On all fronts, for us, it made perfect sense.
Garwood: Dan, you’ve described connected technology as central to solving fragmentation in automotive finance. Can you walk me through a specific workflow that was previously fragmented, and how this changes it for a lender?
Corazzi: I don’t know that a workflow is the best example, but let me tie your question to how I think about this space. From a secured finance perspective, we want to be the one disruptive provider that offers everything. Not every lender out there has all of these lines, but many have several, and some have all of them. We want to give that lender a unified platform — a unified look and feel, the ability to move data across the platform, and to use that data predictively, which then gets into workflows. Ultimately, the vision is a single pane of glass that everybody logs into across all of these applications. So when we walk into a large or medium-sized enterprise, we’re now the one provider that can offer all of that — and we’re trying to do it in the most seamless way possible.
Garwood: I’m always interested in how these things come together. How long were the two companies in discussions before you reached an agreement, and what was the moment that made the deal make sense for both parties?
Corazzi: I’ll defer to Vlad on that one.
Kovacevic: It’s phases of growth of a business, I think. At a certain point, you come to a fork in the road. For us, that happened around the beginning of this year, late last year, when we were looking at what it would take to scale and grow the business in North America the way we think it should. It became clear there were two paths, and one was to look for a strategic partnership like this. The timing was good — about a month before that, I connected with Elias, Solifi’s chief strategy officer, and that started the process. As for the moment you know it’s right — I don’t think it’s one moment. It’s a series of moments where you check various boxes: the culture of the people, the complement of products, the direction the company is going, the quality of people you meet. That’s something Daniela and I talk about a lot — as we went through the process and met different teams at Solifi, we were constantly impressed. These are excellent people who know the industry and care about the same things we do. We’d feel comfortable in this environment.
Corazzi: These things don’t happen overnight, but they also don’t take a couple of years. It came together within the calendar year, and I think we were able to accelerate the process because Vlad and I aligned at an executive level. When two CEOs align on a vision and a strategy, and the people get along well and can see that vision, it comes together quickly. We’re already 10 days into this — we’ve already been to Inovatec’s offices in Vancouver and in Serbia with our teams. I think we’re even more bullish on the transaction, which closed on the first.
Garwood: In the press release, TA is named as an advisor and investor. What role did TA play in bringing this deal together, and does it have an ownership stake in the combined business?
Corazzi: TA, our private equity financial sponsor, came on board with Solifi in November 2024. They’re the majority investor in the business today, and as the majority investor, they have a lot to do with strategy and where we’re going as a business at the board level. In conjunction with our executive leadership team, we decided in early 2024 that we wanted the right balance of organic and inorganic growth. It’s probably more on the executive team to manage the organic-growth side, while TA’s approach is: We want to do acquisitions that make sense for the business, that are accretive, and that fit those product, vertical and geography criteria. So they’re very active in the acquisition process as a whole, and they were active in helping us decide whether Inovatec was the right choice, how it fits and integrates, and whether to help fund it. They’re an active participant throughout.
Garwood: We’re combining two technology companies with different products to integrate. Inovatec brings Propel, its origination and loan management system. Will that be integrated into Solifi’s existing platform, sold as a standalone module, or run in parallel for now? What’s the plan?
Corazzi: I’ll make a short comment, then hand it to Vlad. Even during diligence, before both parties decide and while you have some vision and ideas, I think in the first 30, 60, 90 days you want to dive much deeper into everything related to Propel and the technology. In these acquisitions, we want to provide enough autonomy for businesses to keep running on their own, but integrate where necessary — so that when one plus one can equal three, we do that. We have some ideas, but we want to be careful in that process and evaluate. Vlad, I’ll let you be more specific.
Kovacevic: Of course. And Rita, I’ve mentioned this before — what makes this a good strategic fit is that there’s minimal overlap; the products truly complement each other. You also have to think about how these products are used and how lenders are structured internally. Dan talked about the mission of providing a true end-to-end solution, but even within a bank, the team handling floor plan finance is run completely separately from the team providing retail finance. These products naturally have a line that separates them — it’s not literally the same product you log into. At the same time, we can achieve that single pane of glass by integrating at the right level, whether that’s data, reporting or analysis, or maybe different products on top that connect those dots. It’s important to separate the core operational things people use day to day from the higher-level overview that does make sense to integrate. We’ll work through those things, but fundamentally, from a day-to-day perspective — from an existing Solifi customer’s perspective — nothing is changing. You have the products you’re using to do what you need to do.
Corazzi: One other point on overlapping capabilities: When you look at the auto retail space, that’s not where our heritage was, nor do we have much of a presence there. Although in our other applications we do have other loan origination systems and LMSs, we’re not going to try to shoehorn what we have for equipment into the auto space. So I don’t think we’ll have a lot of overlap, and wherever there is, we’ll rationalize based on what makes sense for the business.
Garwood: It sounds like you have a lot to unpack and figure out. Do you have a realistic timeline for customers to see connected workflows across origination, servicing and Solifi’s existing wholesale floor plan tools, or is that still to be determined?
Corazzi: I’d say TBD. We’ve just started integrating teams — Vlad and I got off a call earlier this morning. We have a tried-and-true integration methodology, and over the next 120 days we’re integrating across all functions, which goes a lot deeper than technology — that’s HR, sales, finance, all those pieces. We have a pretty tight roadmap for those core functions over the next 120 days. While that’s happening, there will be analysis on the technology side, and then we’ll figure out how we do things. The other thing I’d say is that we want to make sure there’s not too much disruption for customers as we combine and pull this together. We want Vlad’s and Inovatec’s existing customers to stay satisfied through the process, and then down the road, gain other advantages as part of it. So we want to be careful about disruption as we make technology decisions.
Garwood: It sounds like for now it will stay the same for customers, but things might change as you learn more and integrate. Do you foresee Inovatec’s customers eventually being migrated into Solifi’s platform, or is the plan to keep the two products separate — or is that still TBD?
Kovacevic: I wouldn’t think of it quite like that. From an overall perspective, obviously we want it to be one Solifi, and there are different levels of integration involved. But like I mentioned, from a product perspective, the reason this makes sense strategically is that each solution solves a specific problem — we don’t need to change that, but we do need to integrate potentially at a data level, at a reporting level. What changes for our customers is that some of them need floor plan solutions, and now, with an existing MSA in place, we can offer them a floor plan solution — and the same goes the other way. So it’s an interesting combination — things stay the same, but the scale on both sides grows in terms of what we can offer in the short, medium and long term.
Garwood: Let’s talk about the team and culture. Vlad, Inovatec grew from two founders to more than 160 people. What will your role and your partner’s role be going forward at Solifi?
Kovacevic: Our immediate focus over the next 90 days to maybe six months is to ensure we execute this integration as aggressively as possible at the right levels, without disrupting anything — from a product, team or client perspective. We want them to see things getting better, not disrupted or negatively impacted, because these kinds of changes are complex. There’s a lot to be careful about — finding the right level of where to be aggressive and move quickly, and where to be more deliberate and take more time. Like Dan mentioned, we literally had a call to focus on that earlier today. So, in addition to delivering on what we’ve already promised to existing clients — we have a number of implementations in progress, and new deals being signed — Daniela and I are both very focused on that, while also trying to ensure the integration goes well. In some ways, it’s business as usual, but there’s more to do.
Corazzi: I’d add that as both parties analyze how we move forward and what’s best for us, I think Vlad and Daniela’s roles will evolve a bit. But to be specific — even looking back at the LeasePath and DataScan acquisitions, Jeff, the CEO of LeasePath, is still here, still active in a specific role. Same with Brian at DataScan, now Solifi. With Vlad and Daniela, we see tremendous value in what they’ve brought to the table for 20 years, and we want them to have an active part in all of this, because that’s how we’ll be successful. So it’s a little bit to be determined, but there’s no question about whether they’ll be integrated with the teams.
Garwood: That’s great — I actually interviewed Brian earlier this week on another topic, so he’s definitely still solidly with Solifi, which is awesome. How about the Inovatec team? I know you have people in Vancouver and in Serbia — is the plan to keep those operations intact?
Kovacevic: Very much so, and that goes back to the strategic fit — the products are complementary, not overlapping. What we do and what our team does is still needed; it’s not like there’s another team at Solifi doing the same thing. So from that perspective alone, yes, absolutely, the teams are staying intact. We’re looking for ways to connect them with the right counterparts on the Solifi side and manage that integration so our processes, approaches, language, and how we document and share information are unified at the right level — so that a customer using both products feels like they’re working with one company, not two. There’s a lot of work to do, but I see nothing but huge opportunity for our team.
Corazzi: I’d add that with Serbia being the bigger Inovatec office, we have no plans to change that at all. I spent five years working in Serbia every quarter, in my experience, and I’ve found that technology workforce to be highly intelligent, business-savvy and very good at what they do. We also have operations in India, in Bangalore and Mysore, but there will be no disruption in Serbia. We will keep that office and grow it, because it’s a real value-add.
Garwood: How are you thinking about preserving Inovatec’s ability to adapt quickly as business evolves, inside Solifi’s larger, more enterprise-oriented organization?
Kovacevic: Business has changed and evolved — what “fast” and “adaptable” meant to Inovatec 10 years ago, five years ago, even last year, has changed and modified, and I expect that will continue. But it’s always gotten better. We wouldn’t have done this if we didn’t believe that being part of Solifi will make that better, because it gives us more scale, more ability to execute, more capacity to execute. It’s always a balancing act of fast versus quality versus cost, and we did this because we believe it’s actually an improvement and will produce better results.
Corazzi: I’m a big believer, as Vlad is, in culture. I don’t think you get successful businesses without a good culture. Our No. 1 value is employees first. When you do these acquisitions, there are reporting changes — not everything stays the same. But there are other benefits, too. You become part of a larger organization, which presents career-progression opportunities for people at Inovatec if they want them and fit a different role. So where some things may change in how a culture was built, we’re trying to add to it, enrich it, and do it in a different way as we bring everybody together.
Garwood: We’ve talked about Inovatec’s strong presence in Canada. Is Canada now a growth priority for Solifi, or was this acquisition more about the auto and power sports vertical than geography?
Corazzi: Vlad can speak to this more intimately, but they have a pretty good presence and penetration rate in Canada. Specifically, this was a North American-focused acquisition, and where we see the real growth opportunity — more significant growth — is in the U.S. portion of North America. Beyond that, some of our goals, because it’s a strong platform and we want to grow our global retail auto presence, include moving it, at the appropriate time, across the globe. Vlad, anything to add?
Kovacevic: I don’t know that I can add much to what Dan said.
Garwood: We’ve talked about some of Solifi’s other acquisitions in secured finance. How does this fit into the broader M&A strategy, and should we expect more acquisitions from Solifi in the future?
Corazzi: From a broader strategy perspective, it fits in absolutely perfectly. There was one analyst — I don’t remember the name — who can sometimes be skeptical, and the quote was something like, “surprisingly, this makes perfect sense.” It was good to see that from the outside, because internally, across our pillars — equipment, auto, wholesale and working capital — this fills an absolute gap. So I think it’s perfect. As for the rest of your question: Three acquisitions over 14 months is not a slow pace. So for the near term — whatever that ends up being — our focus is really on non-M&A activity: executing, bringing these businesses together the right way, and growing those lines of business. That’s probably the best way I can answer that for right now.
Garwood: What does success look like 12 months from now? Is there a specific product milestone or customer metric you’re targeting?
Corazzi: Vlad, I’ll let you go first.
Kovacevic: It’s an interesting question. I think 12 months might be a bit too short a window for us, because in our industry, sales cycles are long and implementations take time — our next 12 months are pretty much set in stone already, so we know what that looks like. It’s really more about looking beyond that. But in terms of what needs to happen in the next 12 months — from Inovatec’s perspective prior to the acquisition — it would be seeing the ability to grow and reach a higher level of penetration in the U.S. with larger clients. That means more new opportunities, more new discussions, participating in RFPs we maybe wouldn’t have been included in before, things like that. Because sales cycles are long, I don’t think you’ll see one specific huge outcome in the next 12 months, but you’ll see a bunch of activity that leads to those outcomes in 24 and 36 months.
Corazzi: For us, from a Solifi umbrella perspective, success probably means a couple of things. First, if we go out 12 months from now, I think the lending community — our customers — would look at us and say Solifi is the one organization that can solve all of our problems and really help us advance as a business. Businesses today don’t just want advanced technology and cost control; they’re really interested in how these solutions help grow revenue and grow the business. So if we’re viewed as that global, go-to leader, that’s success. Second — and although I said employees come first, because I think they’re the bricks that build the house — it’s all about customer advocacy and customer success. Our global gross retention as a company is 96%, which isn’t easy when you’re talking about hundreds and hundreds of companies. Interestingly, Inovatec, DataScan and LeasePath each had 99% gross retention of their customers. If we can uptick ours a bit because of what they’re doing, and keep those customers satisfied, plus add new customers through a net retention rate above 110% to 115%, then I think that also helps define success at a global level.
Garwood: Last question: Is there anything on the roadmap you can preview that becomes possible only because of this acquisition?
Corazzi: I don’t know that there’s anything I’d jump out with today — Vlad can add to this — but we didn’t talk much about all the advancements in AI, not just in features and use cases, but in the way everybody codes now. I think in areas like credit, risk and fraud, when you add both of us together and what we’re each doing, AI will advance those things. Vlad, anything you’d add?
Kovacevic: I agree with that. With AI, it’s all about the context and the scope of knowledge you can expose it to. Being able to connect the two halves of the transaction — think of it from a vehicle’s journey. It first sits at the dealer lot and is financed by that dealer using, say, a DataScan product. Then that car is sold to a consumer, and now it’s financed using an Inovatec product. By seeing both sides of it, think of all the things we can do, all the conclusions we can make, all the insights we can provide. It becomes so much data and so much complexity that AI is really the only way to connect the dots the right way across millions of vehicles, millions of consumers, thousands of dealerships. So yes, I think that becomes possible only when you can see both sides.
Garwood: Well, thank you both for being on the podcast today, and for answering all my questions. I’m excited to see how this all unfolds.
Kovacevic: Awesome.
Corazzi: Awesome. Thank you, Rita.
Kovacevic: Thank you.
Garwood: Thank you.
Kovacevic: Pleasure to be here.