Why Centana Invested in RunBuggy
Author: Ben Cukier | Co-Authors: Devi Malhotra, Sarah Frauen
A Look in the Rear-View Mirror
For something with wheels on the ground, shipping a car from A to B is significantly more difficult than it should be. The process involves a maze of phone calls, paper inspections, coordination across multiple parties, and legacy load boards – an outdated digital listing platform for matching truck freight with available trucks, similar to Craigslist for cars. This all leads to uncertain timelines, opaque pricing, and slow payments that frustrate both shippers and haulers. The magnitude and complexity of the issue is compounded by all the reasons a vehicle is transported – port to dealership, dealership transfers, off-lease returns, repossessions, auction and dealer sales, rental car and fleet transport, to name a few – as well as the multitude of origination and destination points throughout the continent. The number of permutations is overwhelming. In North America, an estimated 52 million+ cars are transported each year1.
Fragmentation makes this a tricky problem. While there are a handful of national carriers, most US vehicle haulers are small operators with ~91.5% operating 10 or fewer trucks2. On average, the typical car shipping move is ~1,000 miles3. This all makes orchestration, compliance, and consistent service levels difficult to maintain at scale.
“Just RunBuggy It”
This backdrop highlights the need for RunBuggy, an asset-lite B2B logistics platform for the automotive industry. The company offers a two-sided marketplace that connects shippers of cars to a nationwide network of verified transporters and haulers. RunBuggy combines network breadth with workflow depth, cybersecurity, real-time tracking, and a modern, mobile-friendly UI. Hitch, RunBuggy’s transportation management system (TMS), enables visibility, automation, and seamless payments to third party or company owned/contracted haulers.
Security, transparency, and efficiency of delivery are at the core of the offering. For shippers, the platform provides visibility and incorporates security measures such as continuous monitoring and controls aligned with SOC 2 and NIST standards. The automation and flexibility help streamline workflows, enabling faster cycle times and greater efficiency. For haulers, digital payouts and mobile app accessibility mean less time waiting on checks and more time on the road. Load matching helps reduce empty beds and backhauls, resulting in more revenue per mile.
RunBuggy’s edge is its flexibility and real-time pricing. In a market long characterized by lagging turnaround times, obscure rates, and limited route coverage, RunBuggy leverages its years of lane- and driver-level data to generate instant, dependable quotes for any lane. This speed and transparency help shippers and haulers plan with confidence and lock in capacity, delivering a smoother, more reliable end-to-end experience.
RunBuggy was founded in 2018 and gained momentum working with two of the largest OEM captive lenders in the US during COVID. Under the leadership of CEO Kevin Malik, RunBuggy helped its customers navigate a volatile market. The company continued to grow and evolve from there. Today, RunBuggy supports many different types of customers, including banks, OEMs, credit unions, dealers, auctions, as well as individual consumers.
The expectations of vehicle logistics are shifting toward transparency, predictability, and speed, and we believe RunBuggy is well-positioned to become the default operating layer for the market: Need to move a car? “Just RunBuggy it.”
A Turning Point
As a result of COVID, the supply of off-lease returns is at the lowest it has been in the past 20 years. The typical lease term is three years, and fewer new cars were sold and leased from 2020-2022. Industry forecasts suggest these numbers will start to normalize in 20264, which leads to a greater need and opportunity in the market. Throughout these macro cycles, RunBuggy has continued to gain traction and market share and is poised for growth when these volumes return.
Helping RunBuggy Drive Continued Growth
As growth investors focused on the financial services ecosystem, Centana has strong connectivity with banks, lenders, and credit unions. These are the same stakeholders that originate, fund, recover, and move vehicles at scale. Security is paramount for these institutions, especially as fraud pressures have risen across auto finance. RunBuggy’s platform controls, including driver identity management, background checks, and workflow guardrails, are designed to help vehicles move securely and efficiently. Speed of delivery is also crucial. Each day a car sits on a lot is a day of lost interest and depreciation — time is literally money. RunBuggy’s efficient matching engine reduces delays.
Centana has experience backing companies where security and identify verification are core to the value proposition, including CertifID (wire-fraud protection and secure payments), Jumio (digital identity and KYC/AML), and SheerID (eligibility and identity verifications), and can understand how mission critical these solutions are. Centana’s connectivity in the financial services ecosystem helped us evaluate this opportunity and is part of what attracted RunBuggy to Centana.
The Road Ahead
Speed, reliability, and security are critical to the automotive logistics industry. Looking ahead, with RunBuggy’s modern technology platform and its extensive, verified network of transporters, RunBuggy is raising the bar for efficient coordination and delivery. We are excited about their ability to continue to enhance relationships across the automotive ecosystem, expand into adjacent market segments, and drive further automation. We look forward to partnering with Kevin and the RunBuggy team in this next phase of growth.
[1] Company Estimate
[2] American Trucking Associations. (2025). American trucking trends 2025.
[3] Central Dispatch by Cox Automotive. (n.d.). Market intelligence.
[4] Knakal, J., & Vinatoru, A. (2024, December 20). Auto lease returns in 2025: What OEMs, dealers and lenders need to know. S&P Global.
Important Disclosures
The information contained herein is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice or an offer, solicitation, or recommendation to buy or sell any security or investment product.
This document contains forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these statements. These statements involve risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ.
Performance metrics and market statistics referenced in this document are based on historical data and past performance does not guarantee future results.
