Andy Hinrichs, the co-founder and former chief executive of Irvine-based AutoGravity Corp., one of Orange County’s fastest-growing and better-funded fintech firms, has begun to take the wraps off his latest startup venture.
Hinrichs, who left AutoGravity in May, is in the midst of ramping up Digital Motors LLC, which state records indicate is based in Irvine and was initially registered in July.
The new venture is designed to empower “car dealers, OEMs, lenders, and automotive marketing sites with an end-to-end digital retailing process,” Hinrichs told the Business Journal last month via email.
Digital Motors’ goal is to make “buying a car [from an authorized dealer] as simple as shopping on Amazon all the way to home delivery,” he said.
Joining Hinrichs at the company as co-founders are two former AutoGravity execs, Sheng Wang and Nick Stellman.
Stellman co-founded AutoGravity in 2015 with Hinrichs—both previously worked for the financial services division of Daimler AG, a large investor in AutoGravity—and served as chief operating officer before leaving around the same time as Hinrichs and Wang.
Reasons for the trio of abrupt departures were not disclosed at the time.
Wang served as chief technology officer for AutoGravity and was honored by the Business Journal last May at our Women of the Year Awards. Hinrichs won an Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award from the Business Journal in March.
AutoGravity, which launched its first product in 2016, had more than 110 employees in Irvine as of mid-2018.
The company has attracted $80 million in investments from Daimler AG and VW Credit Inc.
AutoGravity links car loan borrowers with dealers and financial entities. Last year, it said it hit a new milestone of 2 million users in less than two years since its initial product launch.
The company is now led by Chief Executive Alex Mallmann, while Jason Bonifay took over the chief technology officer role from Wang.
