Startup profile: WhipFlip
- Founded by: Roger Clappe
- Year founded: 2021
- Headquarters: Philadelphia, PA
- Sector: Automotive
- Funding and valuation: $4.15M raised at an undisclosed valuation
- Key ecosystem partners: State of Delaware
Wilmington-based startup WhipFlip is set on becoming the AI engine that keeps car dealers stocked.
Roger Clappe founded the company in 2021, before AI was the hot topic it’s been since OpenAI publicly launched ChatGPT. (The following January, the company was honored as one of our 2022 RealLIST Startups.)
Where apps like Carvana focus on consumers, WhipFlip specializes in the dealer pipeline.
Back then, WhipFlip was best known for its AI-powered tool that helped consumers sell their used cars quickly. Pitched as “DoorDash for selling a car,” it provided an appraisal system that helped individual sellers get a quick offer and skip dealer negotiations.
Today, with new integrations, new investors and new markets, WhipFlip’s AI is increasingly becoming part of the infrastructure behind how used vehicles are valued, moved and liquidated, Clappe said.
“Our model is mainly resupplying the traditional dealer network that’s in dire need of inventory, so we call ourselves the antithesis of Carvana,” Clappe told Technical.ly. Where apps like Carvana focus on consumers, WhipFlip specializes in the dealer pipeline.
And, he says, Whip Flip’s technology is still just getting started.
Building automotive infrastructure
WhipFlip’s appraisal engine and condition-recognition technology, once used mainly to power its own platform, is now also part of other companies’ workflows, according to Clappe.
“Whip Flip has integrated our technology into a large publicly traded marketplace, and other marketplaces are now interested in doing the same,” he said.
Clappe says financial institutions are taking notice. As interest rates rose and repossessions ticked upward, lenders began looking for more accurate ways to evaluate and liquidate vehicles in their portfolios. Predictive liquidation, or using data science and AI to forecast value, demand and the optimal auction path, is becoming a critical tool for lenders navigating volatile market conditions.
“We’ve now engaged with three of the top sub-prime automotive lenders to assist in evaluating, through our AI technology, the true health of their portfolio, and to also assist in predictive vehicle liquidation,” he said. These lenders specialize in lending to consumers with credit challenges, and are most impacted when repossession rates rise.
‘Delaware is now starting to move in the right direction’
As its footprint grows, Clappe remains focused on keeping the company headquartered in Delaware, where it also received one of the state’s first State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) equity investments.
“As a lifelong Delawarean who has been a part of multiple technology companies, I see the potential here for technology startups, especially AI, to make a home here,” he said. “I think Delaware is now starting to move in the right direction for these high emerging tech growth companies to build it here.”
With more regions racing to secure AI talent and companies, WhipFlip’s story helps position Delaware as a home for applied AI in traditional industries, and neighboring states know it: Clappe says other states have actively tried to lure his company.
There is much more to come for WhipFlip, Clappe says. “We’re continuing expansion. We are completing a larger capital raise to get to full scale, which will require more personnel, continued tech enhancements and new markets to serve the customer base,” he said.
That expansion includes new enterprise partners, eight new states, and continued development of AI capabilities that push deeper into the automotive supply chain.
Some of that development happens inside what the team jokingly calls its “Area 51,” after the famous top-secret military installation. It’s a tongue-in-cheek name, but the work is very real. “We like to have some fun here,” Clappe said. He hinted that they’re on the cusp of something big. “Stay tuned, because what we have coming out next will be pretty revolutionary for an industry that is really trying to evolve itself.”
More than anything, the team seems energized by the fact that they’re building advanced tools for a sector that isn’t known for rapid innovation.
“We love the tech. We love what we’re building,” Clappe said. “We love that we’re in a somewhat archaic and traditional based industry right now that’s trying to get out of its own way of that archaic and traditional nature.”
