The growing importance of artificial intelligence in the car buying journey

Welcome to the CBT News original show, The Future of Automotive, with Steve Greenfield, Founder, and CEO of Automotive Ventures, an auto technology advisory firm that helps entrepreneurs raise money and maximize the value of their companies.

Next week, most of the auto industry will be heading down to Dallas for the NADA Conference. If you happen to be down there, don’t miss an NADA Super Session that I am hosting on the main stage at noon on Thursday. I’ll be hosting a panel with four very progressive dealers to discuss the future of automotive and some of the big trends impacting the industry.

We’ve had our pre-call with the panelists, and this is going to be a session that you’re definitely not going to want to miss.

Impel

This week we have a special guest joining us. Earlier this week, it was announced that Impel, the global leader in digital automotive engagement software and data, raised $104 million dollars in growth investment from Silversmith Capital Partners.

So, with that news, let’s welcome Impel’s Co-Founder and CEO, Devin Daly, back to the show.

Companies to watch

Every week we highlight interesting companies in the automotive technology space to keep an eye on. If you read my monthly industry Intel Report, which you can subscribe to for free, I showcase a few companies each month, and we take the opportunity here on this segment to share some of those companies each week with you.

Today, we have two companies to watch: Quantifi and CarWiser.

Quantifi

Quantifi is a data solutions and technology company that aims to evolve data practices in the automotive industry.

Your dealership deserves the essential data and analytics to empower your team members to make the right, most cost-effective and pragmatic decisions.

The reason that I love Quantifi is that they really believe in bringing transparency to a dealer’s advertising spend. They work hard for dealers to help them optimize advertising spend and bring accountability and efficiency to their processes.

You can check out Quantifi at www.GetQuantifi.com.

CarWiser

Carwiser enables consumers to get instant offers to sell their cars.

They just enter their basic information one time to get instant offers from multiple dealers within minutes. The consumer has a no-hassle experience, and doesn’t receive any spam. And it’s 100% free.

The reason that I love CarWiser is that acquiring used vehicles directly from consumers has always been the most efficient way to source vehicles for dealers. Carwiser makes it easy for dealer to plug into their flow of fresh consumer vehicles, and acquire cars they would never get access to, otherwise.

You can check out CarWiser at www.carwiser.com.

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So that’s your quick wrap-up of the big deals in the automotive technology space over the past week.

If you’re an auto tech entrepreneur working on a solution that helps car dealerships, we want to hear from you. We are actively investing out of our new DealerFund.

If you’re a dealer who wants to invest in early-stage auto tech companies that benefit your business, let me know. We are still accepting new investors into the fund.

If you’re interested in joining our investment club to make direct investments into auto tech and mobility startups with small checks, let me know.

And don’t forget to check out my new book available on Amazon called “The Future of Automotive Retail.”

Thank you for tuning into CBT News for this week’s episode of The Future of Automotive, and we’ll see you next week!