With a new $30 million funder, an exit may soon be in the cards for car care startup Get Spiffy.
The round, announced Wednesday, was led by Edison Partners with participation from existing investors Tribeca Venture Partners, Bull City Venture Partners, IDEA Fund Partners, Trog Hawley Capital, Attinger and Private Access Network. Strategic investors Shell Ventures, Goodyear Ventures and Mann+Hummel also participated.
Large finance rounds can bring exit speculation. But Scot Wingo, CEO of the car care on demand company based in Research Triangle Park, isn't biting yet.
“We haven’t really put ourselves out there,” Wingo said, adding he’s fully aware that venture capital comes with exit expectations. Step one is to “build a great company,” but an acquisition or public offering could be in the firm’s future, he said.
“Those options are on the table,” Wingo said. “It’s such a big opportunity compared to everything else we’ve done.”
Wingo is a serial entrepreneur. Most recently, he founded ChannelAdvisor, which went public before it was bought out by CommerceHub last year. Prior to ChannelAdvisor, Wingo already had two exits. Stingray Software was sold to Rogue Wave Software and AuctionRover.com was sold to Goto.com and later became part of Yahoo.
“When I sold my first two companies, it’s because I felt like we were at the max of what we could do,” Wingo said. But with Spiffy, he sees the total addressable market as “every vehicle." The opportunity has him thinking that despite its funding success, Spiffy is just getting started.
However, it’s clear that the firm is moving in that direction, as it recently hired a CFO with IPO experience in Brad Schomber. And the industry has seen deal success. Late last year, AutoNation (NYSE: AN) acquired a Spiffy competitor, RepairSmith, for $190 million.
As for fundraising, Wingo admitted it’s a tough market for startups in general, but said Spiffy has benefited from the post-Covid increase in travel – particularly with its rental car partnerships. The firm has grown 90% year-over-year – numbers that make for good investment pitches, he said.
Wingo said to expect Spiffy to “keep doing more of what we’re doing.”
Spiffy announced a $10 million Series B fundraise last March which brought its total raised to $32 million.
The company is growing a new digital servicing product that will allow other companies – such as car dealerships – to offer mobile services under their own brands. “We’re getting a lot of traction from that,” Wingo said of the service.
Spiffy, which Wingo cofounded alongside Karl Murphy, has 80 employees at its RTP headquarters and 500 technicians. And it’s hiring.
