Numa raises $32M to develop AI tools for car dealerships – News

Numa, a provider of artificial intelligence software for car dealerships, today announced that it has closed a $32 million Series B investment. 

The funding round was jointly led by Touring Capital and Mitsui Group, a Tokyo-based conglomerate. The latter company generates part of its revenue from producing auto parts and hosting truck auctions. The round also saw the participation of several returning backers, including Google LLC’s Gradient Ventures startup fund.

Numa, officially NumberAI Inc., provides a cloud platform that promises to make car dealerships’ day-to-day operations more efficient. The centerpiece of the software is a voice assistant that can field sales calls and texts from customers. After collecting key details about an inquiry, the AI routes it to the dealership employee best suited to provide an answer. 

The company says that its platform automates several related tasks as well. It can analyze a sales inquiry to extract customer intent data for use in marketing efforts. Additionally, it manages the process of scheduling dealership appointments to leave employees more time for other tasks.

While a car is being repaired, a dealership’s mechanics can have Numa send the customer status updates about the maintenance process. Sales representatives, in turn, use the software to help them negotiate trade-ins. Those are transactions in which a dealership buys a customer’s previous vehicle for credits that can be applied toward a new vehicle purchase.

Preventing leads from choosing a competing leadership is another task that Numa promises to ease. The platform can send reminders to potential customers who express interest in making a purchase but don’t follow up.

Dealerships keep sales data and other business information in specialized applications called DMS systems. According to Numa, its platform includes integrations that can automatically sync data collected about sales opportunities to a company’s DMS system. This saves time and avoids the errors that often emerge during manual data entry.

“We are building the AI-native dealership — rearchitecting how dealerships run at their core,” said co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Tasso Roumeliotis.

According to News, Numa’s installed base includes about 600 car dealerships in the U.S. and Canada. The software maker claims to have grown its revenue by more than 2,200% over the past three years thanks to strong demand. Numa is not yet profitable but is reportedly “just about cash-flow break-even.”

To maintain its growth, the company plans to increase the pace at which it releases new features. It will hire more AI engineers using its newly raised funding to support the development push. 

Image: Numa