Auto retail industry stalwart JM Family Enterprises is the lead investor in a new venture capital financing for Skaivision, a developer of computer vision artificial intelligence for automotive dealerships.
JM Family declined to disclose the size of its investment, other than to note that it is in the “single-digit millions” range. The Deerfield Beach, Fla., company chose to invest in Skaivision because it saw great customer service potential in its technology, according to Pearl Percy, JM Family’s chief corporate development officer.
“We liked the fact that they’re using AI technology in a way to create better customer outcomes in the dealership that ultimately help our dealer partners be better at their job of providing excellent customer service,” Percy told Automotive News.
Skaivision, founded in 2021, formally rolled out its Computer Vision AI technology in January — designing it to be an off-the-shelf tool that works with existing automotive dealership security camera networks. It is intended to help improve retail process flow in areas including license plate recognition with vehicle acquisitions, reducing the time it takes to do a quick lube change and proactive customer service satisfaction alerts, Skaivision said.
Plans call for using the undisclosed money raised in the round to continue the commercialization process, expand its footprint with dealership customers and continue product development, the company said.
Skaivision CEO Mark Queen said in a statement that the funding partnership with JM Family is a “significant milestone” in its development.
As part of JM Family’s investment, Kai Ramadan, vice president of fixed operations for JM Family subsidiary Southeast Toyota Distributors, will join Skaivision’s board of directors.
JM Family has made other venture capital investments in startups. It contributed to a round in July 2022 for Recurrent, a Seattle company focused on monitoring battery health for electric vehicles.
JM Family is an $18 billion conglomerate launched in 1968 by auto industry entrepreneur Jim Moran. Its auto industry businesses include: JM&A Group, which provides finance and insurance products and services; Southeast Toyota Distributors, which distributes vehicles parts and accessories to dealerships in Southern U.S. states; Southeast Toyota Finance, which provides financial products and services to Toyota dealers in the Southeast U.S.; and the JM Lexus dealership in Margate, Fla.
JM Family Enterprises began expanding beyond the automobile industry in 2019.