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When Flai was raising its seed round<\/a> last year, it was just a team of three people pounding the pavement to get car dealerships to use the startup\u2019s software to manage phone calls, emails, and texts. But CEO Ari Polakof was already looking to a more agentic future, where Flai\u2019s AI would handle far more. <\/p>\n One year later, that future has arrived. The startup is working with more than 10 of the top 50 dealer groups in the country, and its AI is being used to answer and engage with customers, run outbound campaigns, and schedule appointments \u2014 50,000 per month \u2014 across both sales and service. This has led to a 20x increase in revenue, Polakof told TechCrunch in an exclusive interview.<\/p>\n Flai says this deep integration is helping the startup set itself apart from others trying to get car dealers hooked on AI. The growth is attracting investors, too. On Tuesday, Flai said it had raised a $27 million Series A funding round led by automation-focused firm Base10 Partners. The round included funding from dealers (Friedkin Group and Findlay Automotive), Toyota\u2019s venture arm, Y Combinator, and First Round Capital.<\/p>\n Polakof said Flai\u2019s growth is coming from customers who see the bigger vision of what is essentially an AI-powered customer relationship management software built from the ground up and tailored to the specific need of each dealer.<\/p>\n \u201cSure, we do answer the phone calls, but we\u2019re following up with customers, we\u2019re alerting the leadership whenever they need to take a look at something, maybe because the customer\u2019s mad, or because you forgot to respond, or promised them something next week,\u201d Polakof said. \u201cWe\u2019ve grown quite a bit from just a phone solution to more of a platform. There are plenty of AI companies coming in, but I think that really speaks about the opportunity.\u201d <\/p>\n Flai claims its software is also flexible. Earlier this year it launched with a luxury dealer in Puerto Rico where customers \u201cswitch between Spanish and English mid-conversation,\u201d Flai co-founder Juan Alzugaray wrote in a LinkedIn post. \u201cWe started where we always do: inbound service calls. It went well enough that they added sales. And now the group is rolling Flai out across all 8 of their stores,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n The result of all this is that dealerships are selling more cars, making more money, and \u201ccustomers are getting answers faster,\u201d according to one of the groups Flai works with<\/a>.<\/p>\n Perhaps unsurprisingly, Polakof said much of Flai\u2019s customer growth has come from the dealers talking up the product to their peers.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you really do great by them, they also do great by you, and they recommend you, and talk about you,\u201d he said. This has led to Flai generating half of its revenue from new customers, according to Polakof.<\/p>\n Customers are making these referrals because they like Flai\u2019s software, Polakof said, but also because they get up and running quickly. Flai\u2019s software can be live in a dealership 10 days after a contract is signed, and he tells his team \u2014 which is now up to around 40 people \u2014 that they need to respond to customers within 20 minutes \u201cat most.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe common experience, especially around automotive [software] vendors, is \u2014 and many are almost traumatized by this \u2014 is that they sign the contract and then the company disappears,\u201d he said \u201cI\u2019m fully focused on making sure that we treat every customer as if they\u2019re our only customer, especially because I know how hard it was to get the first one.\u201d<\/p>\n That speed and customer experience, combined with the knowledge Flai has developed on how dealerships work and what they need, is what Polakof said protects the startup from products like Muse, which Meta has pitched as a one-shot solution for small businesses.<\/p>\n \u201cYou get a group of really smart people, and you spend all your days, all your time thinking very deeply about this one space \u2014 it\u2019s just so hard to envision that any other platform outside of the space can come in and start going after your customers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n For all this momentum, there is still one customer Polakof hasn\u2019t been able to land: his own local dealership. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m actually trying much harder than I should to make them a customer,\u201d he laughed. \u201cI\u2019m sure we will get them by next year.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n