Get Spiffy, a car care startup cofounded by serial entrepreneur Scot Wingo, is deploying some of the $30 million it raised last year to acquire a competitor.
The Research Triangle Park company announced its acquisition of Houston-based NuVinAir Thursday, its fourth buy in its 10-year history.
Financial details were not released.
Wingo said it’s a move to bulk up the company’s device business. While the core of Get Spiffy is in on-demand car care, it does have a growing device segment, with home-grown products such as Smart Tumbler, a rechargeable device meant to combat odors, and EasyTread, a tire sensing and analysis system.
NuVinAir pushes out vehicle cleaning technologies, competing with Smart Tumbler.
After going head to head with NuVinAir for two years, Wingo learned its founders were looking to move on. Armed with Spiffy's recent venture capital raise, he jumped at the opportunity.
Spiffy liked the space and wanted to grow Smart Tumbler quickly, he said. As NuVinAir's device had about five times Smart Tumbler's business, the buy "really accelerates Smart Tumbler," he said.
The move brings over about 10 people, primarily in sales.
Wingo said Spiffy could be opportunistic about future buys in the sector, though nothing is on the radar right now.
"This is kind of a big one and we wanted to take some time to integrate it," he said.
In a statement, Kyle Bailey, CEO and founder of NuVinAir, called the deal a “natural progression for the company.”
