AUSTIN, Texas — Reynolds and Reynolds has made a direct equity investment in The Appraisal Lane, a real-time used-car trade network and communications platform, according to a company announcement.

The partnership involves the appointment of a credit facility for the acquisition and sale of vehicles. Reynolds and Reynolds' Robert Burnett, senior vice president of corporate development, and Trew Hiers, vice president of business development, were also added to The Appraisal Lane's board of directors.

"The Appraisal Lane and Reynolds share a similar vision for providing dealers with the tools, information, and transparency they need to optimize their sales processes," said Andrew Iorgulescu, The Appraisal Lane's co-founder and president. "This partnership positions us for future growth with access to a broader range of dealers across the U.S. It also enables us to continue to strategically manage and guide the company in product and business development. We look forward to expanding the reach of our dealer community and helping even more dealers grow their retail operations."

According to The Appraisal Lane, the company has executed more than $65 million in wholesale transactions since April 2015, including $45 million in this year alone. During that same time frame, according to the firm, dealers have independently uploaded more than 40,000 vehicles to the platform. This, according to the company, represents a total of more than $500 million worth of vehicles appraised in its network.

Iorgulescu said that The Appraisal Lane had been exclusively operating in East Coast markets, but it now plans to expand to the rest of the United States. "The growth of our business has been very methodical, and we are currently working to strategically expand our growing dealer community starting east and moving west" he said. "This partnership and investment from Reynolds will significantly help fuel those expansion efforts."