From Three Founders to 50,000 Appointments a Month
When Flai was raising its seed round in late 2025, it was a three-person team cold-calling car dealerships to adopt software for managing phone calls, emails, and texts. CEO Ari Polakof was already envisioning a more agentic future in which Flai's AI would handle far more than basic communication.
One year later, that vision has materialized. Flai now works with more than 10 of the top 50 dealer groups in the United States, and its AI answers and engages customers, runs outbound campaigns, and books appointments — 50,000 per month — across both sales and service. The result: a 20x increase in revenue, Polakof told TechCrunch in an exclusive interview.
A Platform, Not Just a Phone Solution
Flai argues this deep integration distinguishes it from the wave of competitors trying to sell AI to car dealers. The growth is drawing investor attention as well. On Tuesday, the startup announced a $27 million Series A round led by automation-focused firm Base10 Partners, with participation from dealers (Friedkin Group and Findlay Automotive), Toyota's venture arm, Y Combinator, and First Round Capital.
Polakof attributes the growth to customers who see the bigger picture: Flai is essentially an AI-powered CRM built from the ground up and tailored to each dealer's specific needs.
"Sure, we answer the phone calls, but we're following up with customers, we're alerting 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 to the opportunity."
Flexibility Across Languages and Locations
Flai also emphasizes its software's adaptability. Earlier this year, it 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.
"We started where we always do: inbound service calls. It went well enough that they added sales. And now the group is rolling Flai out across all 8 of their stores," he wrote.
The outcome, according to one of the groups Flai works with: dealerships are selling more cars, making more money, and "customers are getting answers faster."
Word of Mouth Drives Half of New Revenue
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Polakof said much of Flai's customer growth comes from dealers recommending the product to their peers.
"If you really do great by them, they also do great by you, and they recommend you, and talk about you," he said. According to Polakof, this word-of-mouth effect has driven half of Flai's revenue from new customers.
Customers make those referrals not only because they like the software, but because onboarding is fast. Flai can be live in a dealership just 10 days after a contract is signed. Polakof tells his team — now around 40 people — that they must respond to customers within 20 minutes "at most."
Breaking the Vendor Disappearing Act
"The common experience, especially around automotive [software] vendors, is — and many are almost traumatized by this — that they sign the contract and then the company disappears," Polakof 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 accumulated knowledge of how dealerships operate and what they need, form the core of the startup's pitch as it scales into 2026.