Austin auto body repair software startup Mobile Tech RX has made another acquisition, this time scooping up fellow Austin startup Claimbot for an undisclosed price.
Claimbot, co-founded by CEO Miguel Fernandez and CTO Kristian Muñiz in 2016, has a virtual chat engine used by automotive and insurance professionals to communicate about claim filings, roadside assistance and payments.
It raised a $615,000 seed round in 2019 that was led by the Google Assistant Investments program, an investment and networking effort by Google to add new features to its Assistant product. Others in the round included Austin's Notley Ventures, Social Starts and angel investors. At the time, it said its clients included Silvercar by Audi, Brightside Cover and Omadi Roadside.
Mobile Tech RX was founded by paintless dent repair professionals Eric Garves and Daimen Simmons in 2014. For the first few years, the bootstrapped company worked with Albert Swantner, who at the time was founder and CEO of Bohemian Innovation, to help build an app and platform.
The co-founders added Swantner as CTO about a year and a half ago in conjunction with Mobile Tech RX raising a $4.2 million Series A funding round led by Silverton Partners.
“The auto recon industry is primed for a leap forward. Adding Claimbot’s automated chatbot technology to the Mobile Tech RX platform will help technicians and business owners focus on their core competencies and leave time-intensive and repetitive tasks for a chatbot," Graves said in the announcement. "Mobile Tech RX’s acquisition of Claimbot will push the industry forward into greater efficiency and innovation, and it will help businesses scale."
Mobile Tech RX has found its niche in the auto body industry, using AI to help set prices for repair and providing back office functions, such as invoicing, sending data to QuickBooks and other functions. In 2019, it acquired competitor Dent Buddy and technician staffing app HailGo.
Swantner told Inno the company generated about $2 million in revenue a couple years ago with a five person team. Now, it has grown to 30 employees, including development and sales in Austin and a customer service team of about five working in San Antonio. The startup is targeting revenue of about 2.5 times that when it closes the year out, he said.
“There’s a lot of customized nuance around the industry that we were able to take advantage of because Eric and Damon, the founders, were so into the industry and knew all of its nuances," Swantner said.
While the Mobile Tech RX may lose business when a repair shop shuts down, Swantner said the software is an essential part of most clients' business -- so they continue to subscribe to the software offering even during the leaner times of the pandemic.
“We’ve actually had our best months in the summer of this year," he said.
Since the pandemic began, Mobile Tech RX has had to quickly shift its sales from in-person to virtual, like most companies.
“Sales has been weird," he said. "A lot of our sales in the past have been at trade shows and through face-to-face interaction. This is a very people heavy industry. It matters who you are and who you know – and being there. So that’s been a change.”
Mobile Tech RX is poised to launch a new software product in December that's targeted at the auto detailing industry. The platform will consolidate various programs to allow users to have CRMs, payment processing, reporting and other functions woven into the Mobile Tech RX platform, along with specialized features to help detailers identify opportunities to up-charge for select services.
Swantner said the startup is also working with partner companies to give consumers easier ways to find out how much it would be to fix a dent or blemish before they put their car on the market for a peer-to-peer sale.
“We want to power that next evolution of selling your car online, making it frontline ready and getting as much money as you can for the sale," he said.
The startup is zeroed in on the auto industry currently, and it's not making any predictions about its long-term future.
“It’s all on the table for us, which is what’s exciting," Swantner said. "We don’t have to have a Series B, C, D, E to be successful. We can be successful by having a Series A and growing and being thoughtful about how we spend.”
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story listed Swantner's position incorrectly. It has been updated.
