Ridero Raised $2.7 Million to Bring Leasing to Used Cars. Why a Columbia-Founded Fintech Is Betting on the Plumbing of Auto Finance

NEW YORK — The price of a new car in America is hovering near a record. Kelley Blue Book reported that the average new-vehicle transaction price reached $50,562 in September, just $52 below the all-time high set in December 2025. A New York startup thinks part of the answer isn’t a cheaper car but a different kind of financing, and it just raised money to build the infrastructure behind it.

Ridero, which describes itself as an AI-powered automotive financial infrastructure company, announced on Nov. 9 that it has raised $2.7 million in total pre-seed funding. Backers include RiverPark Ventures, NY Ventures, Green Egg Ventures, Blackpoint Capital and Potamkin Ventures, according to the company and AlleyWatch.

What Ridero Does

Most car buyers know two options: a loan or a lease. Leasing is common on new cars but much harder to find on used ones, and balloon loans, where payments are lower because a large final payment is due at the end, are offered by relatively few lenders.

Both products depend on one hard number: the residual value, or what the car will be worth at the end of the term. Get it wrong and the lender loses money. That risk, plus the specialized systems needed to manage it, has kept many banks and credit unions out of the business.

“Millions of vehicles have historically been difficult to lease because the financial infrastructure needed to support them at scale hasn’t existed,” Brock Thompson, Ridero’s co-founder and CEO, said in the announcement.

Ridero’s platform combines AI-powered deal structuring, risk analytics and automated lender connections so that financial institutions can launch, distribute and manage residual-based products, the company says. It says its technology is already in use at dealerships in the Northeast and the South, and that it has integrated with Tekion, a dealership software provider, so its financing options appear inside tools dealers already use.

The AFG Partnership

The company’s biggest step so far came a month before the raise. On Oct. 5, Ridero announced a partnership with Auto Financial Group (AFG), a Houston-based company that offers balloon lending, leasing and vehicle remarketing to financial institutions.

The deal runs on two tracks. First, Ridero will bring AFG’s existing lender programs into its dealer platform, giving those lenders another origination channel. Second, banks, credit unions, specialty lenders and captive finance arms can use Ridero’s technology together with AFG’s residual expertise and residual value guarantees to launch or expand leasing on new and used vehicles without building that infrastructure themselves.

“Residual based financing has proven its value,” AFG CEO Richard Epley said in that announcement. “Yet these programs remain concentrated among a handful of players.”

The Founders

Ridero was founded in 2026 by Thompson and Natalie Williams, its CTO, who attended Columbia University together. Thompson previously worked at The Carlyle Group and The Amherst Group; Williams came from Capstone Investment Advisors and UBS, according to the company. The money will go to product development, more institutional partnerships and hiring.

Why It Matters for New York Founders

Infrastructure is a fundable wedge. Ridero isn’t trying to become a lender. It sells the systems that let existing lenders offer a product they’ve avoided. That’s a familiar fintech playbook, and it lets a pre-seed company work with regulated institutions without becoming one.

Partnerships can come before the round. The AFG deal and the Tekion integration were announced before the funding. For a young infrastructure company, proof that established players will plug in can matter more to investors than a long revenue history.

Explain the trade-off in one sentence. As AFG’s Epley put it, borrowers get lower payments, lenders get more volume and dealers close deals faster. Founders selling into old, relationship-driven industries need that kind of clarity, because the buyer usually has to change a workflow to say yes.

What to Watch

Ridero’s claims about dealer adoption come from its own announcement, and it hasn’t disclosed revenue, deal volume or how many lenders are live on the platform. Lower monthly payments also come with trade-offs for consumers. With a balloon loan, a large payment is due at the end unless the borrower returns the car under the program’s terms, and leases come with mileage and condition rules. Whether residual-based products help buyers will depend on how clearly those terms are explained at the dealership.

Still, with average new-car prices above $50,000, lenders and dealers are looking for ways to bring monthly payments down. Ridero is betting that the bottleneck is the software and risk management, and it now has funding to test that bet.

Entrepreneurs Of New York is an independent publication and is not affiliated with Ridero, AFG or any of the investors named. This article is for general information and is not financial advice.