SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The StartFast Venture Accelerator in Syracuse says it has made a follow-on investment in LotMonkey Inc., a company headquartered in the Tampa, Florida area.
The dollar amount of the investment wasn’t disclosed, James Shomar, program director at StartFast Venture Accelerator, said in an email reply to a BJNN inquiry.
LotMonkey participated in StartFast’s 2018 summer-accelerator program and has “continued to grow its month-over-month revenues by double digits,” StartFast said in a news release. The company offers an automotive-merchandising system for car dealerships to help them sell more cars faster.
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John Wingle and Tim Lindsay, LotMonkey’s co-founders, are veterans of the automotive industry, “most notably” having previously founded On-site Solutions, a custom automotive-merchandise provider.
With the investment, Nasir Ali, managing director of StartFast, and John Max Miller a StartFast mentor and serial entrepreneur in the automotive space, are joining the LotMonkey board of directors.
StartFast also noted that Right Side Capital Management, a “top Silicon Valley-based seed fund,” is also participating in the financing.
Funding has already allowed LotMonkey to expand its marketing efforts and develop a new sales call center, StartFast said.
StartFast Venture Accelerator has a mailing address at the Syracuse Technology Garden in downtown Syracuse, per its website. The organization operates its summer-accelerator program at the Madden School of Business at Le Moyne College, Shomar said.
About LotMonkey
Dealerships using LotMonkey sell cars “on average 12 percent faster” and can save “$100,000s” in inventory costs each year, per the release.
Its software-as-a-service (SaaS) product provides design templates, OEM-created designs, and the ability to create custom designs of various dealership merchandise, such as hang tags, banners, car decals, and window stickers.
OEM is short for original-equipment manufacturer.
Dealers using LotMonkey are then connected to local printers who can deliver the materials in 1-to-2 days after the dealer places the order.
LotMonkey’s customers include “hundreds” of independent dealers and dealership groups across the country, per StartFast. The company charges each customer a monthly subscription plus a commission on all merchandise ordered through the system.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
