Or bee, Inc., a leading technology service provider for the automotive industry, announced the closing of its oversubscribed Series A financing round, which raised $4.0 million to drive growth of the company’s innovative platform for the auto retailing ecosystem including dealership groups and their technology and service providers.
The Presidio Group acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Orbee. The round was led by the automotive and transportation venture firm FM Capital, with participation from existing anchor investors Holman Enterprises, Flow Automotive Companies and Pohanka Automotive Group. New strategic investors included automotive retailers Mills Automotive Group, Qvale Auto Group, Basil Family Dealerships and auto industry expert Ron Frey. Presidio also invested in the round.
“We are excited about the confidence shown by both our existing and new investors in our robust technology offerings as we continue to expand our reach in the high-potential and fast-growing area of customer experience transformation,” said Orbee Co-Founder and CEO Atul Patel. “Delivering personalized customer experiences is increasingly important for dealerships especially as market conditions and inventories normalize, and with our technology, retailers can tap their rich customer data and use our middleware capabilities to better engage customers throughout their car purchasing and ownership journey.”
Orbee’s technology serves as a powerful middleware, bringing together all of a dealership’s data sources in a centralized platform that empowers automotive dealerships to manage and leverage their own data. Orbee’s platform has many use cases including streamlining and optimizing advertising, personalizing shopping experience and messaging, enriching insights and analytics with third-party data and increasing loyalty across multiple rooftops in a dealership group. With the additional funding, Orbee will be able to enhance and further scale its platform.
“The adoption of customer data platforms in the retail automotive industry is poised to expand exponentially,” said Chase Fraser, Managing Partner at FM Capital. “Our investment in Orbee demonstrates our confidence in the potential of this technology.”
Presidio leaders and dealer investors echoed that enthusiasm for Orbee’s capabilities.
“Orbee is helping dealers customize and improve the experience they offer to car buyers,” said Presidio Managing Director Keith Style. “Orbee’s game-changing technology gives dealerships the tools they need to leverage data for the benefit of the customer and the dealer alike.”
Damian Mills, CEO of Mills Automotive Group, said, “Automotive retailers are seeking every advantage to attract and retain customers, and harnessing the power of our data can help us elevate our clients’ experiences as they buy vehicles and have them serviced at our dealerships. I am excited about the promise that Orbee’s platform holds for our business.”
“We love opportunities like this that give us the chance to connect forward-thinking dealers and investors with auto tech companies delivering cutting-edge software that will change the face of retailing,” said Presidio CEO Brodie Cobb. “Or bee’s innovations will put dealers in the driver’s seat as they strive to personalize the car-buying experience.
