Welcome back to the latest episode of The Future of Automotive on CBT News, where we put recent automotive and mobility news into the context of the broader themes impacting the industry.
I’m Steve Greenfield from Automotive Ventures, and I’m glad that you could join us.
This week we are joined by a past special guest to the show, who is going to share with us some of the background information about a recently huge AutoTech deal.
Earlier this month, Impel announced that it was acquiring Outsell for more than $100 million cash plus equity.
The acquisition pairs Impel, an early pioneer in generative AI in the auto industry, with Outsell, one of the industry’s early customer data platform players.
Impel was founded back in 2012 and was known initially as SpinCar. The company rebranded as Impel in 2022.
Impel has raised over $130 million, including a 2023 $104 million growth equity investment led by Silversmith Capital Partners, with earlier investor Wavecrest Growth Partners participating.
Impel’s acquisition of Outsell marks its third strategic purchase in three years. In 2021, it acquired Pulsar AI of Tbilisi, Georgia, and Los Angeles-based CarLabs.ai in 2022.
Following the company’s $104 million dollar growth equity financing back in January, Impel, the global leader in digital automotive engagement software and data, has now launched a new product they’re calling “Chat AI”: a dealer webchat product powered by generative AI and large language models.
So, with this news, let’s welcome back to the show Impel’s Co-Founder and CEO, Devin Daly.
Devin – it’s great to see you again, and congratulations on this significant product launch.
QUESTION: Before we start, maybe we can hear fro you a quick primer for viewers who may not know Impel. Tell us what Impel does and what problem you’re solving.
QUESTION: Congratulations on the acquisition of Outsell. This is a huge milestone for Impel. Tell us about Outsell and why the acquisition made sense for you.
QUESTION: So why should dealers care? What does the Impel & Outsell combination bring to dealers in terms of business impact? What does it mean for dealers in their day-to-day operations?
QUESTION: What’s been the reaction from the industry to the acquisition news? What are you hearing from the market and from customers?
QUESTION: How about OEM reaction? As Impel integrates Outsell, do you see applicability for automotive manufacturers?
QUESTION: How do you see the combined platform playing out across the different marketing tiers in auto retailing, where there is so much complexity?
QUESTION: What do dealers need from an AI sales and marketing platform to be successful?
QUESTION: Any further acquisitions on the horizon?
LAST QUESTION: Any parting thoughts? What else are we going to be hearing from Impel over the next 6 months or so?
Well Devin, thanks for making time for us today, and congratulations to you and both the Impel and Outsell teams on the acquisition. I look forward to checking back in a few months to hear how it’s going.
So, with that, let’s transition to Our Companies to Watch.
Every week we highlight interesting companies in the automotive technology space to keep an eye on. If you read my weekly Intel Report, we showcase a company to watch, and take the opportunity here on this segment each week to share that company with you.
Today, our new company to watch is FlowFox.
FlowFox is an import automation platform.
The company offers a global end-to-end container import automation and standardization for ocean carriers and their customers.
Flowfox sells its product to shipping lines with the intent to help them automate coordination of container releases to their import customers and drop-offs of empty containers, as well as amendments to empty pickup information and re-use of import containers for export loads.
The company addresses a number of challenges in the current system, including: the avoidance of manual import processes, missing data, a lack of security, and claims and disputes.
All of which help ocean carriers and shippers reduce both delays and costs.
If you’d like to learn more about FlowFox you can check them out at www.FlowFox.com
So that’s it for this week’s Future of Automotive segment.
If you’re an AutoTech entrepreneur working on a solution that helps car dealerships, we want to hear from you. We are actively investing out of our DealerFund.
If you’re interested in joining our Investment Club to make direct investments into AutoTech and Mobility startups, please join. There is no obligation to start seeing our deal flow, and we continue to have attractive investment deals available to our members.
Don’t forget to check out my book, The Future of Automotive Retail, which is available on Amazon.com. And keep an eye out for my new book, “The Future of Mobility”, which is almost done, and will be out soon.
Thanks (as always) for your ongoing support and for tuning into CBT News for this week’s Future of Automotive segment. We’ll see you next week!
