TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--STELLA™ Automotive AI, Inc. (“STELLA”), a provider of automotive artificial intelligence technology, announced the closing of its oversubscribed Series A financing round, which raised $19.7 million to drive market growth and support ongoing product enhancement and development.
The raise comprises both newly invested capital and outstanding convertible notes that converted into this Series A issuance.
The Presidio Group acted as exclusive financial advisor to STELLA for the Series A financing, helping it procure capital from existing backers and several new investors from within the auto retail ecosystem, including strategic partner Reynolds and Reynolds and nine new strategic dealer investors: Qvale Auto Group, OREMOR Automotive Group, Mills Automotive Group, Bowers Automotive Group, MileOne Autogroup, Flow Automotive, MBB Auto Group, Ford Family Investments and West Herr Auto Group.
“The excitement the market is showing for STELLA’s AI technology is thrilling,” said STELLA CEO Rich Sands. “Since our founding, STELLA has aimed to put dealers first as it delivers products that both improve dealership efficiency and drive a best-in-class customer experience. The confidence demonstrated by our investors in this Series A round further validates our vision of driving transformational change in auto retailing with our technology.”
Using STELLA’s technology, dealerships can solve the longtime major pain points of engaging with customers in a timely and helpful fashion. STELLA’s AI assistant can simultaneously handle unlimited inbound calls as it engages in natural language conversations 24/7 to deliver a world-class customer experience. The STELLA assistant is trained on a wide range of automotive retail topics and can answer frequently asked questions and schedule service and sales appointments.
The expansion of STELLA’s strategic dealer investor group provides a unique advantage as the company continues to enhance and expand its technological capabilities.
“Having dealers on board as early investors and users of STELLA’s technology creates a symbiotic relationship that benefits both parties,” said Presidio Managing Director Keith Style. “Strategic investors who have deployed these solutions provide real-time feedback, enabling STELLA to quickly enhance its current product offerings and develop a robust roadmap of future products that dealers want to deploy in their stores.”
STELLA’s products integrate with existing dealership software offered by companies like Reynolds and Reynolds, a longtime leading provider of the full Retail Management System for auto retailers.
“As we look to the future of automotive retail and the positive impact artificial intelligence can have, two things are clear. First, the broader an ecosystem we can build for AI to interact with, the more powerful it will be. And second, the data layer AI technology uses to make decisions will determine how much benefit it will have for retailers and our industry as a whole,” said Chris Walsh, president of Reynolds. “Our investment in STELLA is a great launching pad to take AI in automotive retail to the next level.”
Having Reynolds as an early investor provides another avenue for STELLA to test and refine its AI solutions.
“The investment by Reynolds and Reynolds underscores the tremendous value inherent in STELLA’s technology and its ability to improve dealership efficiency and profitability and enhance the customer experience,” said Presidio CEO Brodie Cobb. “The industry’s strategic venture investors see huge potential in artificial intelligence to transform the aspects of vehicle sales and service that haven’t always worked seamlessly. STELLA’s innovative products and this successful financing round further cement the promise AI holds for the industry.”
About The Presidio Group
The Presidio Group (“Presidio”) was founded in 1998 with the simple mission to relentlessly put the interests of our clients first. By steadfastly adhering to this philosophy, the firm has earned the trust of clients throughout the United States. During their careers, the professionals at Presidio have collectively done more than 275 transactions totaling approximately $18.5 billion. The Presidio Group is based in Denver and Atlanta. Presidio Merchant Partners LLC is a subsidiary of The Presidio Group LLC and is a member of FINRA and SIPC. For more information on Presidio, visit www.thepresidiogroup.com.
About STELLA
STELLA™ Automotive AI, Inc. (“STELLA”) is the leading provider of automotive AI technology. STELLA, based in Tampa, Fla., helps auto dealers deliver a complete and intelligent customer experience via telephone, chat and web. STELLA’s digital assistant behaves like a staff member to complete repetitive tasks such as answering and routing phone calls, booking appointments and answering frequently asked questions about vehicle sales and service. STELLA sits on top of legacy software infrastructure and reports analytic information about customer behavior to the dealer. Dealership groups are adding STELLA to their stores every week with tens of thousands of customer calls being handled 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Learn more about STELLA at www.stellaautomotive.com
