“Can the dominant US auto-dealer DMS incumbent become the payments and F&I workflow layer for auto retail before best-of-breed challengers unbundle it?”
CDK Global was spun out of ADP in 2014 as a standalone dealer management systems (DMS) vendor for auto dealerships. After years as a public company, Brookfield Business Partners took it private in a 2022 $8.3B deal. CDK is a vertical SaaS platform for automotive retail: DMS, F&I, CRM, digital retail, fixed operations, and dealer payment processing (CDK ePayments, CDK SimplePay). Its embedded finance angle is dealer-facing payment acceptance and F&I lender orchestration through the Fortellis API marketplace — not a fintech-style BaaS or issuing program.
CDK Global processes payments through CDK ePayments (self-operated) and CDK SimplePay (self-operated).
CDK Global's lending and capital products are provided by affirm.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 2 layers in CDK Global's stack: Payments / PSP (CDK ePayments (self-operated) and CDK SimplePay (self-operated)); Lending (affirm and CDK Lenders network (integrated F&I lender routing)).
CDK Global is founded in 2014 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, U.S. (previously Hoffman Estates, IL).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against CDK Global and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.