Wells Fargo Accelerator Adds Biz Card Startup Extend

Extend and Oliver have joined the ranks of Wells Fargo‘s Startup Accelerator, which a press release stated will afford them education, mentorship and investment to guide early-stage growth.

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    The Startup Accelerator is a portfolio of startup companies working across a varied set of fields, including customer experience, payments, marketing, risk and regulation, climate change and security, the release stated. By working with the Accelerator, companies have access to new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), distributed ledger technology (DLT) and augmented reality (AR).

    There are currently 27 companies as part of the Accelerator, according to the release.

    Extend, the release noted, works to provide digital payments services for financial institutions (FIs) to provide “modern card experiences.” The company helps to enable virtual cards and offers a suite of products, including aggregated virtual card application programming interfaces (APIs), a digital corporate card app and industry-first card tokenization.

    “We are delighted to team up with Wells Fargo given their portfolio of small- to mid-sized businesses and desire to innovate,” said Andrew Jamison, Extend CEO and co-founder, according to the release. “We look forward to working together to explore new payment capabilities that to date have only been available to the largest corporate clients. With easy onboarding, intuitive user experience, and strong controls associated with virtual cards, there is huge potential in this partnership, and we look forward to seeing it grow.”

    Oliver works to transform legal servicing by letting every party easily collaborate in a transparent and compliant way. CEO Walker White said in the release that the company wants to work with the Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator to “drive critical capabilities into our solution based on real-world experience with Wells Fargo.”

    “All our existing and new customers will benefit from the lessons and requirements of one of the largest financial services companies in the world,” he said, according to the release.


    CarParts.Com leverages App and Paid Memberships While Exploring Potential Sale

    CarParts.com CEO David Meniane led the company’s Tuesday (Aug. 12) earnings call by saying that it remains engaged in exploring strategic alternatives and is “highly confident” that it is nearing completion of this process.

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      “We’re currently evaluating several different transaction structures, including a potential sale of the company and strategic investments that we believe have the potential to strengthen our capabilities and unlock new growth,” Meniane said.

      Meniane added that there is no certainty that the company will complete a deal.

      CarParts.com announced in a March 5 press release that it was exploring strategic alternatives, including a possible sale of the company, to “maximize value for our shareholders.”

      In the meantime, CarParts.com is pursuing strategic initiatives to boost the company’s value, Meniane said Tuesday.

      The company achieved positive adjusted EBITDA in June and delivered second-quarter results that showed improvement over the previous quarter, Meniane said.

      Meniane attributed the improved results to the company’s mobile app surpassing 1 million users and accounting for 12% of eCommerce revenues; services like products and shipping protection, paid memberships and roadside assistance contributing high-margin fee income; and its eCommerce and mobile app product roadmap delivering improvements in conversion rates, units per order and average order value.

      For the remainder of the year, CarParts.com is focused on expanding its product offering, generating high-margin fee income, scaling its B2B offering, continuing to grow its mobile app business and managing cash flow and inventory levels, Meniane said.

      “We know this transformation is a multiyear effort,” Meniane said. “We’re focused on rebuilding the core foundation of CarParts.com, one that can scale, innovate and deliver a seamless, high-quality customer experience, while driving greater discipline in both our cost structure and capital deployment.”

      Meniane also highlighted challenges faced by CarParts.com. These include noncompliant products imported from China driving a “race to the bottom,” tariffs and inflation weighing on consumer demand, and the macroeconomic environment requiring the company to seek new opportunities for growth.

      “As we progress through the remainder of the year, we’ll continue to navigate a dynamic macro environment, including ongoing tariff and impact and pricing volatility, with discipline and agility,” Meniane said. “Our focus remains on profitable growth, anchored by the strong foundation we’ve built.”