Flai raises $27M Series A as AI dealership software books 50,000 appointments monthly

The round included funding from dealers Friedkin Group and Findlay Automotive, Toyota's venture arm, Y Combinator, and First Round Capital. Flai is working with more than 10 of the top 50 dealer groups, according to the company.

Flai began by managing phone calls, emails, and texts for dealerships. It now says its AI answers and engages with customers, runs outbound campaigns, and schedules appointments. Polakof described the product as AI-powered customer relationship management software built from the ground up and tailored to each dealer's needs. “Sure, we do answer the phone calls, but we're following up with customers, we're alerting the leadership whenever they need to take a look at something, maybe because the customer's mad, or because you forgot to respond, or promised them something next week,” Polakof said. “We've grown quite a bit from just a phone solution to more of a platform. There are plenty of AI companies coming in, but I think that really speaks about the opportunity.”

Earlier this year, Flai launched with a luxury dealer in Puerto Rico where customers switch between Spanish and English mid-conversation, co-founder Juan Alzugaray wrote in a LinkedIn post. He said the company started with inbound service calls, then added sales, and the group is now rolling Flai out across all eight of its stores. According to one of the groups Flai works with, dealerships are selling more cars, making more money, and customers are getting answers faster.

Polakof said much of Flai's customer growth has come from dealers recommending the product to peers. “If you really do great by them, they also do great by you, and they recommend you, and talk about you,” he said. He said half of Flai's revenue now comes from new customers. Customers make referrals because they like the software and because they can get up and running quickly, according to Polakof. Flai's software can be live in a dealership 10 days after a contract is signed, and he tells his team, now around 40 people, to respond to customers within 20 minutes at most. “The common experience, especially around automotive software vendors, is — and many are almost traumatized by this — is that they sign the contract and then the company disappears,” he said. “I'm fully focused on making sure that we treat every customer as if they're our only customer, especially because I know how hard it was to get the first one.”

That speed and customer experience, combined with Flai's knowledge of how dealerships work, is what Polakof said protects the startup from products like Muse, which Meta has pitched as a one-shot solution for small businesses. “You get a group of really smart people, and you spend all your days, all your time thinking very deeply about this one space — it's just so hard to envision that any other platform outside of the space can come in and start going after your customers,” he said.

Polakof said there is still one customer he has not been able to land: his own local dealership. “I'm actually trying much harder than I should to make them a customer,” he laughed. “I'm sure we will get them by next year.”