On-demand car care, tech and services company Spiffy said Wednesday it has closed on a $30 million Series C financing round.
The company plans to use the funding for growth across its business units as well as its private-label hardware and Software-as-a-Service package for dealers called Digital Servicing.
Additionally, Spiffy’s strategic investors now include a host of dealer groups.
“After building my last businesses on the thesis of products going digital through eCommerce, we wanted to explore the idea of services going digital next,” Spiffy CEO Scot Wingo said in a news release.
“Spiffy is scaling faster than any of my previous start-ups because we are meeting the quickly evolving preferences of convenience-oriented customers across our fleet and consumer verticals,” Wingo said. “I’m both humbled and grateful to the existing and new investors coming along with us on this ride and plan to deliver great results in return.”
Edison Partners led the round, which also included existing investors Tribeca Venture Partners, Bull City Venture Partners, IDEA Fund Partners, Trog Hawley Capital, Attinger and Private Access Network, along with strategic investors Shell Ventures, Goodyear Ventures, and Mann+Hummel.
Edison Partners general partner Lenard Marcus added: “Spiffy continues to impress with thoughtful execution of strategic initiatives. By listening to their customers across segments, they innovate with agility, and Edison is excited to deepen our partnership as the company positions itself as a market leader.”
The Presidio Group was Spiffy’s exclusive advisor in the round. As part of this, Presidio helped Spiffy land several dealer groups as strategic investors, including Bowers Automotive Group, Qvale Auto Group, the Sewell group and others.
In the release, Presidio Group CEO Brodie Cobb said: “Automotive industry leaders understand the growing need to meet customers 'where they are' and Spiffy is uniquely positioned to provide software, hardware, and mobile service delivery expertise to help the industry elevate customer experience and grow revenue.”
Bruce Qvale is CEO of Qvale Auto Group, which is now a strategic investor in Spiffy.
“After seeing what Spiffy is building from the consumer app to green mobile service delivery, we are thrilled to invest in its growth. We look forward to seeing how Digital Servicing helps our industry evolve by delivering convenient and ecofriendly services to customers where they want,” Qvale said.
Impel, a provider of digital automotive engagement software and data for dealers, auto marketplaces and OEMs, announced a $104 million growth investment led by Silversmith Capital.
Wavecrest Growth Partners, an existing investor in Impel, also participated.
Impel plans to use the funding for product expansion and M&A moves.
Its technology uses artificial intelligence to help dealers and automakers “deliver more engaging omnichannel customer experiences while driving greater operational efficiency,” Impel said. Among its solutions are merchandising and conversational AI applications.
Impel has made two acquisitions in the last two years, including its November purchase of CarLabs.ai, a U.S.-based provider of conversational AI products for the automotive industry.
“The past few years have brought massive change to the auto industry as traditional operating models have been fundamentally transformed with digital technology. With the heightened focus on electric vehicles and the growing demand for ecommerce functionality, the digital disruption that is currently underway shows no signs of slowing,” Impel co-founder and CEO Devin Daly said in a news release.
“We’re thrilled to have found a partner who shares our vision for the future, and we are excited to have Silversmith join our team as we embark on the next chapter of our company’s growth,” Daly said. “This investment will significantly strengthen our ability to introduce new products and innovations that generate meaningful business impact for manufacturers and dealers alike, while enhancing the customer experience at every touchpoint.”
Todd MacLean, who is managing partner at Silversmith Capital Partners, added: “On the long list of things that we look for in new investments, there are two that stand out above the rest — a compelling team and a product that customers love.
“While it may seem to many that the hype around AI and machine learning is overblown, Impel has shown how software companies can leverage this cutting-edge technology to solve everyday problems — in this case changing how dealers engage with and serve their customers. We think that in the automotive market, like all others, the genie is out of the bottle and there’s no going back to the old way of doing things,” MacLean said. “We’re thrilled to be joining Devin, his team and our friends at Wavecrest for the next part of the journey.”
MacLean and Silversmith vice president Ned Kingsley have joined the Impel board.
Over at Wavecrest, managing partner Deepak Sindwani said: “Since our initial investment in 2018, we’ve had the pleasure of working closely with the team at Impel as they’ve grown to become the recognized leader in digital engagement technology for the auto industry.
“As the category creator, their innovations have made a meaningful impact on the way in which vehicles are sold. The company’s impressive performance to date, coupled with the increasing need for automation in an industry that is in the throes of transformation, presents a compelling picture for what’s ahead. We are confident in the team’s ability to execute, and we were excited to invest again in their next stage of growth alongside a great partner in Silversmith.”
Privacy4Cars said Monday it has closed a new financing round that includes The Presidio Group CEO Brodie Cobb, FM Capital and Automotive Ventures.
The latter led Privacy4Cars’ Series A round in August 2021.
The growth capital for the company, which provides automotive data privacy and security solutions, comes at a time of regulatory changes in the space taking effect.
“With state associations and industry organizations increasingly speaking about the need to delete consumer personal information from vehicles, raising this capital on the eve of many 2023 regulatory changes (including new privacy laws in five states and the new Safeguards Rule at the federal level) gives us the confidence we can meet the rapidly growing need dealerships, auto finance companies and fleets have to step up their compliance programs,” Privacy4Cars founder and CEO Andrea Amico said in a news release.
“This capital will also help us expand internationally, especially in the EU where deleting data from cars is mandatory under GDPR, and Canada where Quebec's new Bill 64, with its very steep fines for non-compliance, is a game-changer for privacy,” he said.
The company said the funding allows it to grow sales and marketing channels while also continuing to develop its various vehicle data privacy, safety, security and compliance solutions.
Steve Greenfield, the founder and CEO of Automotive Ventures, said in the release: “The pace of change in the automotive industry is accelerating, with more data being collected from vehicles. Privacy4Cars is uniquely positioned to help industry participants protect themselves from exposure to privacy issues associated with data collection, regulation and compliance.”
During a discussion for the Auto Remarketing Podcast at Used Car Week in San Diego last month, Amico examined the automotive implications of the new Safeguards Rule and how it effects not only dealers and auto finance companies, but the suppliers of those entities, as well — including auto auctions, transportation companies and repo companies.
To listen to the conversation, click on the link below.
Pohanka Automotive Group recently invested in Orbee, a leading provider of marketing technologies.
According to a news release, Pohanka’s investment into Orbee revolves around the common goal of driving innovation across the automotive software ecosystem. The dealer group’s strategy of connecting legacy systems with new capabilities such as Orbee’s Customer Data Platform (CDP) and Marketing Automation Platform (MAP), will provide a reference design for other dealership groups, too.
With more than 100 years in business, Pohanka is one of the oldest automobile dealerships in the nation with locations in Maryland, Virginia and Texas, employing more than 1,700 team members. The group sells a wide range of vehicle makes, including Honda, Lexus, Acura, Hyundai, Nissan, Chevrolet, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Volkswagen, Ford, CDJR and Kia.
“Unlocking siloed data about each customer’s journey from DMS databases and OEM marketing programs will allow dealerships to engage with their customers, with the right message, at the right time, with the right offer” said Andrew Carrington, chief of innovation, technology and applications at Pohanka Automotive Group. “Orbee’s enterprise marketing system enables us to increase the untapped lifetime value of our customer relationships while offering each one a personalized experience, especially in high-margin fixed operations.”
Pohanka is joining Holman and Flow Automotive in its investment in Orbee. Holman made its move in August.
As dealership groups with strong brand equity continue to expand their customer base and rooftop footprint, Orbee said they have reached a point where connecting and activating their rich datasets becomes daunting.
Orbee has created a data-centric marketing cloud that makes it easy to analyze, segment and engage customers with automated marketing across all first-party and third-party channels.
Orbee’s open platform enables robust integrations through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Software Dev Kits (SDKs), a strong product pipeline, and through custom development services.
“We are so thrilled to have the Pohanka Automotive Group join our strong investor base that all share our vision where data connectivity takes the customer experience and marketing efficiency to new heights,” Orbee co-founder and CEO Atul Patel said. “With our direct collaboration with the technology team at Pohanka, Orbee will further enhance its capabilities and know-how so that we can help every dealership increase their enterprise value through data they already own and marketing they can control.”
AutoLeadStar, a digital customer data and experience platform, has landed a $40 million round of funding led by Riverwood Capital and with existing investors participating, as well.
The company provides artificial intelligence-powered marketing automation technology to dealerships and OEMs. Nearly 1,000 dealerships in the U.S. and Canada use AutoLeadStar’s software.
“The customer car purchasing experience is rapidly changing and the automotive industry is thirsty for new technologies to serve the modern consumer,” AutoLeadStar co-founder and CEO Aharon Horwitz said in a news release.
“AutoLeadStar is the industry’s premier tech lab, where we partner with dealers to envision the robust digital systems, online processes, and software they need for an increasingly digitized business landscape,” Horwitz said.
“We are excited to partner with Riverwood Capital to double down on and expand our investment in the technology we can provide for auto retailers. Car dealerships are massive drivers of economic growth and value in communities, and especially given the current economic climate, we are proud to be helping dealerships succeed in the digital era.”
Riverwood joins existing investors PICO Venture Partners, Target Global, and Aleph.
“AutoLeadStar is disrupting a market dominated by fragmented legacy solutions. The Company is providing dealerships with the most attractive software automation platform which consolidates data sources and implements hyper-targeted, sophisticated marketing campaigns to digitally engage with consumers, increasing sales, productivity, and ROI,” Riverwood co-founder and managing partner Francisco Alvarez-Demalde said in a news release.
“Aharon and the AutoLeadStar team are incredibly driven. They have built a company that is anchored by a world class product platform and go-to-market team, and by a relentless focus on customer success and quality thus delivering tremendous growth and world class software metrics.”
Capstone Technologies Group is pushing more financial resources into DrivenIQ, which previously highlighted its successes coming out of NADA Show 2022.
The technology company that looks to help businesses best advertise to their ideal customers announced this week that it has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round backed by Capstone Technologies Group, which acquires, operates and organically develops disruptive technologies.
Capstone Technologies Group acquired an initial minority interest in DrivenIQ last October and has since invested additional capital to further accelerate DrivenIQ’s growth.
Founded by Albert Thompson, DrivenIQ specializes in helping brands unify, collect, normalize and ingest consumer data to better engage with their ideal customers.
During the first six months of this year, DrivenIQ said it has more than doubled its monthly revenue. And in July alone, the company said revenue grew 112% compared to January.
“Albert and the DrivenIQ team epitomize the technology innovators who are changing the face of business today,” Avenel Financial Group Founder and Capstone Technologies Group president Mike Pruitt said in a news release.
“DrivenIQ’s robust and impressive technology stack helps brands build, own and store audience data in a way that is meaningful to their business use cases. We’re pleased to help DrivenIQ continue to drive substantial growth,” Pruitt continued.
Executives said this funding supports the expansion of DrivenIQ’s Customer360 AMP (Audience Management Platform), called VisitIQ, composed of custom first-party data, location geo-device data, predictive artificial intelligence modeling and custom micro-audiences, VisitIQ site audience tag technology and its latest solution, DrivenID Identity Graph.
The DrivenID Identity Graph can organize, connect, unify and analyze online and offline consumer and behavior data for more than 14 billion customer records identifying over 230 million U.S. households.
Working in tandem with VisitIQ, Identity Graph can give brands and marketers the most comprehensive 360-degree real-time audience view, ushering in the future of “people-based” data-driven strategies.
Pruitt says that Capstone was attracted to DrivenIQ for the company’s ability to eliminate ad waste, provide higher ROI, and more effectively monetize real traffic through real measurability, starting and ending with a data first approach.
Thompson said the company’s partnership with Capstone Technologies helps DrivenIQ continue to fill significant voids in the customer data platform market, which he expects to reach $15 billion by 2026.
“We appreciate Mike and Capstone Technologies for supporting and recognizing the importance of technologies that collect and model complex and vast volumes of data,” Thompson said. “Our unwavering goal is to create an AMP rooted in AI-driven decisioning, customer experience analytics and micro-segmentation analytics to help drive marketing efficiencies, data accuracy and activation to solve endless use cases.
“This will ultimately drive a true 1-to-1 customer to brand personalization ecosystem. Our funding will help us reach our goal and revolutionize the way data platforms manage audiences at scale,” he went on to say.
On Tuesday, Mississippi-based tech startup Carmigo announced the close of its most recent funding round.
After receiving $7 million from both the original and new investors, Carmigo said will continue building its online marketplace connecting individual vehicle sellers with dealers in a one-day auction.
According to a news release, this funding round brings the total investment in Carmigo to $10 million since its launch in January 2021.
“This round close is a significant milestone for Carmigo,” Carmigo co-founder and chief executive officer Andrew Warmath said in the news release. “Our team created Carmigo after recognizing a significant pain point in the automotive industry. Our virtual platform creates a convenient and competitive environment for consumers, while helping our dealers source quality inventory. We are proud of what we have built, but this recent investment makes us excited for what’s to come.”
Carmigo indicated A major investor in the round was Southern Bancorp in partnership with Advantage Capital.
Impressed by Carmigo’s innovative business model, Advantage Capital and Southern Bancorp will support Carmigo’s mission to “instill a higher degree of trust in the automotive industry while providing jobs in North Mississippi.”
“Our core values stem from our commitment to invest in small businesses and grow communities,” said Brian Anderson, principal at Advantage Capital. “Carmigo is the perfect example of this dedication. They are committed to bringing jobs to Tupelo and fostering the job market.”
Bill Wright, CEO of Southern Bancorp’s Western Region added, “This investment in Carmigo represents Southern’s commitment to support flexible lending options in markets where capital is less readily available.”
In addition to cultivating jobs in northern Mississippi, Carmigo added this funding round will further product development to enhance buying capabilities for dealerships and the selling experience for individual sellers.
To learn learning more about Carmigo, visit gocarmigo.com.
RunBuggy gained more financial horsepower this week, as the technology platform that connects car shippers and transporters announced it secured a line of credit with Silicon Valley Bank, providing the company with access to funds that will fuel the growth and retention of its open transportation marketplace.
In January, RunBuggy secured a Series A investment by a syndicate including the Larry H. Miller Co., Porsche Ventures and Hearst Ventures to accelerate market adoption.
To date, RunBuggy said it has signed up more than 17,000 drivers to its platform, delivered to more than 100,000 unique addresses and has reduced the average time to deliver a vehicle by more than 50%.
“This line of credit will allow us to better manage our growing portfolio of receivables and provide additional financial flexibility for a variety of initiatives we have underway to strengthen and expand our marketplace,” RunBuggy vice president finance Jacob Patterson said in a news release.
RunBuggy launched in 2018 with a mission to simplify car shipping. Since then, the company has built one of the world’s largest digitally enabled carrier networks and transformed automotive transportation logistics management for thousands of shippers and haulers.
“RunBuggy has been a leader in transforming automotive transportation logistics management for thousands of shippers and haulers,” said Shane Ballew, director with Silicon Valley Bank’s technology team. “We are excited to expand our relationship with RunBuggy and support their continued growth.”
RunBuggy chief executive officer Kevin Malik added his perspectives, too.
“We are grateful for the expert strategic financial support Silicon Valley Bank is able to offer RunBuggy,” Malik said. “We wanted to work with a firm that has a proven history of working alongside innovators to help build smarter and scale faster. Silicon Valley Bank is a perfect fit.”
To learn more, visit runbuggy.com.
Holman likes Orbee as one of its solution providers so much that the global automotive services organization decided to make an investment from its venture capital division in the company, which provides the auto industry with data management, marketing analytics and automation solutions.
Holman highlighted in a news release that Orbee’s innovative digital marketing platform can provide automotive dealerships with comprehensive consumer insights and analytics, helping users better understand the customer’s behavior and allowing them to deliver an engaging shopping experience.
“Our relationship with Orbee began as a customer as we explored opportunities to further enhance our ability to provide an intuitive, personalized, and seamless customer experience across our Holman family of dealerships,” said Bill Cariss, president and chief executive officer of Holman Growth Ventures. “It quickly became apparent that Orbee’s powerful technology could both optimize and simplify customer engagement efforts through each phase of the buying journey — research, purchase, and aftersales.
“This made aligning with Orbee in the form of a strategic capital investment a natural next-step and we’re excited to help support the company’s continued growth,” Cariss continued in the news release.
Orbee reiterated that its proprietary technology can deliver a suite of fully integrated digital marketing tools that can allow users to leverage “unsurpassed” data intelligence to optimize campaigns and customize the buying experience for each customer.
Orbee co-founder and chief executive officer Atul Patel said his powerful, single-source platform also can allow automotive retailers to streamline their technology stack, further enhance their CRM capabilities, integrate with other critical dealership systems and seamlessly sync behavioral data across their entire dealership group.
“Our team continues to build the most robust technology that consolidates and integrates the modern marketing functions into a single enterprise-grade system,” Patel said. “We have valued our collaboration with Holman as a forward-thinking customer because they embrace using digital marketing technology to reach new levels of customer experience.
“And now, we are thrilled to have Holman invest in our vision to help dealerships accelerate their marketing transformation as their consumers’ behaviors and expectations evolve,” Patel continued.
In addition to providing a more personalized shopping experience, Orbee’s technology can help automotive dealerships be more effective in their marketing efforts and communicate with their customers more efficiently through a variety of automated processes.
Furthermore, Orbee also has patent-pending technology that can empower dealerships to take back control over their first-party data while making it easier to be compliant with today’s rigorous data security and consumer privacy rules, as well as the increasingly stringent regulations on the horizon.
“The way consumers shop for vehicles and automotive services has shifted dramatically over the last several years. Today, the customer’s purchasing decision is typically made well before ever setting foot in a dealership, so providing an engaging digital buying experience in an increasingly competitive market is crucial,” said Gene Welsh, president for automotive retail at Holman.
“We believe there’s significant potential in this truly unique platform amidst a rapidly evolving automotive landscape and we’re looking forward to collaborating with Orbee as the company continues to introduce its innovative technology to dealerships across the country,” Welsh went on to say.
To learn more about Orbee’s digital marketing solutions for automotive retailers, visit Orbee.com. For more information on Holman and the organization’s wide range of integrated automotive services, visit Holman.com.
The investment community continues to push funds into the fleet sector.
On Tuesday, Castlelake, a global alternative investment manager with approximately 17 years of experience investing in asset-rich opportunities, announced that as part of its income investing strategy, it has reached an agreement to provide up to $155 million in fleet financing to Voyager Global Mobility (VGM), a leading provider to the smart mobility marketplace.
The financing is earmarked for the acquisition of more than 3,200 vehicles to rideshare, car-share and micro-mobility driver-subscribers in the United States and Latin America.
“We believe this financing will enable VGM to meaningfully address a supply shortage while providing drivers with more flexible solutions and a wider range of vehicles, including those that are handicap accessible,” said Armin Rothauser, who is partner of asset-backed direct lending at Castlelake.
“Through this transaction we are also pleased to obtain exposure to what we view as a compelling income investment opportunity within the fast-growing mobility market,” Rothauser continued in a news release.
VGM aims to address the ride-hailing vehicle supply gap by providing short-term subscriptions to drivers who either do not own a car or need a vehicle when their own car is out of service.
Currently, VGM operates a fleet of just under 10,000 vehicles across 20 cities in the U.S. and Mexico. VGM is aggressively expanding its business domestically and international through acquisition and internal growth.
“Castlelake’s financing expertise and ability to embrace complexity have been a tremendous asset throughout our relationship, and through this financing we are pleased to be able to nearly double our fleet of vehicles around the globe,” VGM chief financial officer Wayne Ackerman said in the news release.
“We look forward to taking our operations to the next level and to providing more drivers and our transportation software partners with professionally managed vehicles,” Ackerman added.
Castlelake has completed more than $3 billion of specialty finance investments since 2015, including a recent agreement to acquire up to $400 million of diversified equipment loan and lease receivables. Its specialty finance activity has also included acquiring or financing more than 3,500 commercial and industrial loans and over 5 million consumer receivable accounts.
Castlelake launched its asset-backed direct lending strategy in 2020 and has since provided nearly $3 billion in loans to borrowers.
EA Markets served as exclusive financial advisor and placement agent to VGM on the transaction.
