Impel Raises $104M to Help Car Dealers Improve Digital Engagement

Impel has raised $104 million to grow its digital engagement software for automotive manufacturers, dealers and third-party marketplaces.

The company will use the new capital to develop new products and pursue mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to meet the auto industry’s demand for automation and digital technology solutions, Impel said in a Tuesday (Jan. 17) press release.

“The past few years have brought massive change to the auto industry as traditional operating models have been fundamentally transformed with digital technology,” Impel Co-Founder and CEO Devin Daly said in the release. “With the heightened focus on electric vehicles and the growing demand for eCommerce functionality, the digital disruption that is currently underway shows no signs of slowing.”

PYMNTS research has found that car buying is evolving as part of the larger digital transformation, with consumer demand reshaping the auto-buying process and dealers racing to stay ahead of the curve.

While car dealers have traditionally enjoyed the in-person advantages of building rapport and customer relationships in the showroom, these advantages have been steadily eroding, according to “The Key to Satisfied Car Buyers is Digital Disbursements,” a PYMNTS and Onbe collaboration.

Digital platforms can meet this need while also helping consumers through the car buying process — a task that is growing even more complicated for shoppers with the emergence of electric vehicles, TrueCar Senior Vice President of Business Development Alain Nana-Sinkam told PYMNTS in an interview posted in October 2022.

One of the biggest opportunities will be developing platforms that translate customers’ needs into features they may not fully understand while providing personalization and making the experience as seamless as possible, Nana-Sinkam said.

Impel’s digital engagement software uses behavioral data and artificial intelligence (AI) to personalize car shoppers’ experiences at every touchpoint, according to the press release.

Its merchandising and conversational AI applications work with major websites, customer relationship management (CRM) and dealer management system (DMS) platforms, the release said.

The company’s most recent growth investment was led by growth equity firm Silversmith Capital Partners, per the release.

“While it may seem to many that the hype around AI and machine learning is overblown, Impel has shown how software companies can leverage this cutting-edge technology to solve everyday problems — in this case changing how dealers engage with and serve their customers,” Silversmith Managing Partner Todd MacLean said in the release. “We think that in the automotive market, like all others, the genie is out of the bottle and there’s no going back to the old way of doing things.”