When Flai was raising its seed round last year, it was just a team of three people pounding the pavement to get car dealerships to use the startup’s software to manage phone calls, emails, and texts. But CEO Ari Polakof was already looking to a more agentic future, where Flai’s AI would handle far more.

One year later, that future has arrived. The startup is working with more than 10 of the top 50 dealer groups in the country, and its AI is being used to answer and engage with customers, run outbound campaigns, and schedule appointments — 50,000 per month — across both sales and service. This has led to a 20x increase in revenue, Polakof told TechCrunch in an exclusive interview.

Flai says this deep integration is helping the startup set itself apart from others trying to get car dealers hooked on AI. The growth is attracting investors, too. On Tuesday, Flai said it had raised a $27 million Series A funding round led by automation-focused firm Base10 Partners. The round included funding from dealers (Friedkin Group and Findlay Automotive), Toyota’s venture arm, Y Combinator, and First Round Capital.

Polakof said Flai’s growth is coming from customers who see the bigger vision of what is essentially an AI-powered customer relationship management software built from the ground up and tailored to the specific need of each dealer.

“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.

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