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.
I’m very excited to announce our latest investment out of the Automotive Ventures DealerFund.
I’m thrilled to share why we decided to lead the pre-seed round for SparkServ, an emerging leader in Fixed Operations optimization for automotive dealerships.
We believe that the software ecosystem addressing the service side of dealership operations remains underinvested, under optimized and fragmented.
While a dealership’s Fixed Operations can drive more than half of its total profit, dealers today control only about 30% of the service market share while often struggling to maximize the potential of their Service BDC teams.
Service BDC agents are tasked with filling service bays and driving revenue, but they often lack the tools to do this efficiently, leading to missed opportunities, customer dissatisfaction, inefficiencies, employee frustration and turnover.
As dealer margins return to pre-COVID levels and consumer service loyalty hits record lows, the need for dealerships to invest in Fixed Operations has never been greater. Yet, traditional systems fail to adequately support BDC teams, who juggle siloed tools and disjointed processes.
SparkServ’s platform aggregates data across a dealership’s technology stack, enabling Service BDC agents to create personalized outreach plans for every customer interaction. This innovation streamlines workflows, reduces errors, and significantly boosts productivity. Early results from SparkServ customers have been remarkable, including a 53% improvement in the productivity of bottom-performing agents and significant revenue gains.
SparkServ embodies everything we look for in an investment: a compelling market opportunity, a proven need for innovation, and a visionary team capable of executing their mission.
Founders McKenna Valley (CEO) and TJ Higgins (CTO) are two dynamic leaders whose complementary skills and experiences give SparkServ a powerful edge.
Together, McKenna Valley and TJ Higgins represent the ideal leadership duo: McKenna’s strategic and operational insights, combined with TJ’s technical acumen, create a foundation for driving transformative results for dealerships.
SparkServ is a perfect fit for the Automotive Ventures DealerFund, which is backed by dealership owners focused on technologies that directly enhance their operations and profitability. By empowering Service BDC teams with AI-driven solutions, SparkServ is driving tangible results for dealerships, helping them retain customers, improve operational efficiency, and reclaim market share in the service lane.
We’re excited to support SparkServ as they transform the service lane experience for dealerships across North America. Their platform not only bridges gaps in legacy systems but also equips dealerships with the tools to thrive in a highly competitive market.
To learn more about SparkServ, you can check them out at www.sparkserv.com.
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 SelectFi.
SelectFi’s “Predictive Lending” product gives your dealership’s Sales & Finance teams superpowers for closing more deals.
SelectFi helps dealerships quickly and accurately estimate automotive financing for customers, allowing for greater compliance with FTC fair lending regulations.
The SelectFI Lender Selector is a pre-desking solution that uses Predictive Lending that generates multiple financing estimates for each of your dealership’s lenders using a soft credit pull. Your team gets higher closing rates, faster, more accurate first pencil, and greater regulatory compliance.
If you’d like to learn more about SelectFi you can check them out at www.SelectFI.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.
Don’t forget to check out my first book, “The Future of Automotive Retail,” and my brand new book, “The Future of Mobility”, both of which are now available on Amazon.com.
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!