Problem. Platform. Solution. Thesis.
Most Canadians still buy a vehicle the way the industry was built: drive to a lot, choose from what is parked there, and let the finance desk fit a loan to that vehicle. OCAL redesigned the entire process around the customer's financial eligibility, needs and convenience. Here is the problem, the platform that solves it, what the customer gets, and the economics that make investors lean in.
A funded vehicle transaction is a retail vehicle sale arranged through OCAL's platform for which the customer's financing contract was funded by a lender and the vehicle was delivered to the customer. The cumulative count is drawn from the Company's transaction records and lender reporting since its first funded transaction in 2021 and is not a measure presented in its financial statements.
1. The problem OCAL exists to solve
Four problems bring a customer to OCAL. They cannot get approved where they shop. They cannot find the right vehicle at a payment they can carry. They live hours from the nearest lot, with few options and no delivery. Or nobody has ever explained to them how vehicle financing works. The industry was built to sell what is parked on the lot, so the lot, not the customer, drives the sale: the average dealership holds a used vehicle 48 days and pays about $90 of floorplan interest on it to clear about $1,234 of gross (Presidio-NCM, Cox, 2024 to 2026). 68 percent of Canadians say they do not trust dealerships to act in their interest (Angus Reid, 2025), and 48 percent want to apply for credit online but only 33 percent can (Cox, 2026). The demand to buy differently was never the problem. The process was.
2. The platform
OCAL is a technology-enabled automotive financing and purchasing platform. One workflow carries the customer from a credit application on their phone to lender approval, financial guidance in plain terms, vehicle sourcing, digital contracting and delivery anywhere in the province. The approval comes first, so the vehicle is chosen to fit the customer's eligibility and budget, never the other way around. OPENLANE is OCAL's auction and sourcing channel: more than 3,000 vehicles are visible on its Canadian marketplace on a typical day, and none of them is on OCAL's balance sheet. OCAL is the licensed motor dealer of record on every transaction, holds no standing inventory, and owns a vehicle for three to five days between purchase and delivery, financed on a purchase line for exactly those days. The lender funds the contract and carries the credit risk.
3. The solution, as the customer sees it
- They know what they can afford before they fall in love with a truck. The approval comes first, so nobody is steered into the vehicle someone else needs to move. The choice is not forty vehicles on a lot: it is any vehicle on OPENLANE's marketplace that fits the approval, bought the day they say yes.
- Speed, without a visit. Application to approval in hours, approval to delivery in three to five business days anywhere in the province, every step on the phone. The AI agent answers the 3 am application from the night-shift worker who used to wait until 9.
- The right lender for their credit, prime to non-prime. Seven lenders are on our panel, prime to non-prime: RBC, Santander, iA Auto Finance, Eden Park, LendCare, Rifco and Iceberg. A prime customer gets a prime rate; a near-prime file can still be placed with a finance company on the panel, explained in plain terms, not a high-rate note with a GPS cut-off switch.
4. Traction and operating leverage
OCAL already generates revenue: more than 1,500 funded vehicle transactions since 2021 and audited revenue of $6.48 million in fiscal 2025, up 19 percent, on an asset-light structure with no standing inventory. Gross profit rose 33 percent to $810,751 and the gross margin to 12.5 percent, and 87 percent of that gross profit came from finance, insurance and protection products, the layer that sits on top of every vehicle sale. Operating expenses fell 9.8 percent to $1,114,195 in the same year, the operating loss halved, and cash from operating activities turned positive. The cost base is largely fixed and does not grow with the count, so as volume increases the Company has the potential to spread it across more vehicle sales. The constraint has never been demand. It is licences, people and lender capacity, and all three are being added now.
| What to watch | Where to find it | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Vehicles funded and delivered | Operating metrics, reported every month from the 10 November 2026 release | The count is the number the model turns on |
| Gross profit per vehicle and gross margin | Operating metrics, under fixed definitions | Vehicle margin, lender reserve and protection products; most of the gross profit sits in the finance and protection layer |
| Operating expenses | Audited statements and MD&A | $1,114,195 in fiscal 2025, down 9.8 percent while revenue grew 18.8 percent; largely fixed, so each added vehicle carries more of it |
Operating metrics are management information, unaudited, historical only, and are published in each monthly results release under the definitions on the Operating metrics page.
5. Why now
- The payment is the purchase. 77% of Canadian new-vehicle buyers finance or lease and 57% of new loans run 84 months or longer, at an average payment near $880 (J.D. Power, 2025). The average new auto loan reached $36,979 in mid-2026 while new loan openings fell 9.2% (Equifax): bigger loans, fewer approvals. Approval first sets the payment before the car is chosen, the only order that works for that buyer.
- The banks narrowed the credit box. Six in ten households earn under $100,000 and 28% of credit-active Canadians sit below prime, about nine million people (TransUnion). Several large banks have narrowed their indirect auto lending. OCAL's panel covers both ends, prime and non-prime, through seven lenders.
- The supply is where we buy. Dealer trade-ins, off-lease returns, retired rental units and repossessions flow through the wholesale auctions, and OPENLANE is the largest of them in Canada. Only licensed dealers can buy there, and OCAL buys against an approval, never for a lot.
- Buyers want the financing step online, and do not trust the desk. 48% of buyers want to apply for credit online but only 33% can (Cox, 2026); 68% of Canadians do not trust dealerships to act in their interest (Angus Reid, 2025). The step buyers most want online is the one we moved first.
6. One machine, copied
Every new market is a copy of the first: a licence, a bond, a small office and a small local team, not a building and not a lot. Canadians buy about three million used vehicles a year, more than $100 billion worth, so OCAL needs only a fraction of one percent of any market it enters.
| Market | Status at 4 November 2026 | Planned opening | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| British Columbia and Alberta | Licensed, five years of history | Home base | The proven machine; the head office in Vancouver and the hub in Edmonton |
| Manitoba | Dealer permit application under way with the regulator; office inside the OPENLANE Winnipeg auction facility arranged | Next: targeted for December 2026, when the permit is granted | Serves Saskatchewan and northwestern Ontario too |
| Ontario | Registration under way | Targeted for 2027, subject to registration and capital | About 40% of Canada's market |
| The Maritimes | Planned | After Ontario | Same playbook: one licence, one office, one local team |
| United States | Planned | From 2028, after the Canadian roll-out | The same model: a licence, lender access and the platform |
Regulators set licensing timelines. Openings are management's targets and depend on licensing, lenders and capital. See the forward-looking statement at the foot of this page.
7. The plan
The Manitoba dealer permit application is under way with the regulator, with an office inside the OPENLANE Winnipeg auction facility arranged; opening is targeted for December 2026, when the permit is granted. Ontario registration is under way, targeted for 2027, subject to registration and capital. The Maritimes follow Ontario, and the United States is on the roadmap from 2028, after the Canadian roll-out. Management's plan assumes growth capital in fiscal 2027; no terms have been set, and nothing on this site is an offer of securities. OCAL does not publish a forecast: the audited statements and the monthly operating update show the machine as it runs.
8. Why it is hard to copy quickly
The licences to sell and finance vehicles remotely took two years to win in British Columbia. We hold BC and Alberta, with Manitoba and Ontario under way. Seven lenders, prime to non-prime, are on our panel. We have more than 1,500 funded transactions of data on which leads convert, which lenders approve whom and what a car is worth before anyone else bids. Lead generation, the CRM and the AI sales agents run on one platform: every deal on one screen, and an AI agent takes the 3 am lead (a lead answered inside five minutes is about 21 times more likely to qualify than one answered after thirty, per the MIT and InsideSales lead response study).
9. The thesis
A revenue-generating, asset-light platform with a largely fixed cost base and a model designed to scale without the inventory cost of the industry it serves. The founders hold about 54 percent, escrowed for 36 months under exchange policy, and have not sold a share.
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This page contains forward-looking statements, including statements about planned markets, licensing, operating metrics and financing. They are based on management's current expectations and assumptions, are not guidance, and are subject to the risks described in OCAL's Filing Statement dated 9 July 2026 and its continuous disclosure on SEDAR+. Actual results may differ materially. OCAL does not undertake to update them except as required by law.
Market facts from Statistics Canada, TransUnion, Equifax, J.D. Power, Cox Automotive, Angus Reid and Presidio-NCM. Audited figures from the financial statements filed on SEDAR+.