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The Presidio Group Advises STELLA™ Automotive AI on $11M in Convertible Loan Financing

By: via Business Wire

Reynolds and Reynolds leads round of investment aimed at expanding STELLA’s innovative automotive AI technology

STELLA™ Automotive AI, Inc. (“STELLA”), a provider of automotive artificial intelligence technology, announced a new round of convertible loan financing, which raised $11 million to drive market growth, continue to build its team and support ongoing product enhancement and development.

The raise was led by existing investor and strategic partner Reynolds and Reynolds with participation from other existing strategic investors, including more than 15 large private automotive dealership groups, as well as new investors Sheehy Auto Stores and Butler Automotive Group. The Presidio Group acted as exclusive financial advisor to STELLA for the convertible loan financing.

“The ongoing support from our original investors has been tremendous, and we appreciate their confidence in STELLA’s AI technology,” said STELLA CEO Rich Sands. “The market’s embrace of our technology has been robust, and this funding will help STELLA deliver our innovative products that improve operational efficiency and the customer experience to more dealerships. We expect STELLA’s rapid customer and revenue growth to continue over the next year.”

STELLA plans to use the capital raised to accelerate the onboarding of dealership clients; expand its team, including in leadership; advance product development; and introduce enhanced features to its suite of AI tools.

STELLA’s technology helps dealerships solve longtime industry pain points around engaging with customers in a timely and helpful fashion. STELLA’s AI assistant can simultaneously handle unlimited inbound calls as it engages in natural language conversations 24/7 to deliver a world-class customer experience. The STELLA assistant is expertly trained on a wide range of automotive retail topics and can personalize the customer engagement process when booking service appointments, leading to higher customer retention and lower operating costs for dealerships. STELLA’s products integrate with existing dealership software offered by companies like Reynolds, a longtime leading provider of the full Retail Management System for auto retailers.

The financing round underscores the intense interest that auto dealers and auto retail technology companies have in the potential for artificial intelligence to transform the industry and the customer experience.

“We continue to invest heavily in artificial intelligence through both development and strategic partnerships,” said Chris Walsh, president of Reynolds. “The technology STELLA delivers creates huge efficiency gains for dealers, and when paired with Reynolds Spark AI unified data layer, the results increase exponentially.”

Enthusiastic strategic investors like Reynolds and the many dealership groups backing STELLA provide a framework for real-time feedback to support quick product enhancement. Their interest also demonstrates the power that AI software holds for automotive retailing more broadly.

“Presidio has seen the interest in AI solutions for the auto retail ecosystem skyrocket over the last year,” said Presidio CEO Brodie Cobb. “There is huge potential for AI tools to improve dealership efficiency and profitability and to make the sales and service experience for customers smoother and more painless. STELLA’s innovative technology is beginning to deliver on the promise artificial intelligence holds for the industry.”

About The Presidio Group

The Presidio Group (“Presidio”) was founded in 1998 with the simple mission to relentlessly put the interests of our clients first. By steadfastly adhering to this philosophy, the firm has earned the trust of clients throughout the United States. During their careers, the professionals at Presidio have collectively done more than 280 transactions totaling more than $18.5 billion. The Presidio Group is based in Denver and Atlanta. Presidio Merchant Partners LLC is a subsidiary of The Presidio Group LLC and is a member of FINRA and SIPC. For more information on Presidio, visit www.thepresidiogroup.com.

About STELLA

STELLA™ Automotive AI, Inc. (“STELLA”) is the leading provider of automotive AI technology. STELLA, based in Tampa, Fla., helps auto dealers deliver a complete and intelligent customer experience via telephone, chat and web. STELLA’s digital assistant behaves like a staff member to complete repetitive tasks such as answering and routing phone calls, booking appointments and answering frequently asked questions about vehicle sales and service. STELLA sits on top of legacy software infrastructure and reports analytic information about customer behavior to the dealer. Dealership groups are adding STELLA to their stores every week with tens of thousands of customer calls being handled 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Learn more about STELLA at www.stellaautomotive.com.

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