Overfuel, an Indianapolis-based digital retail platform designed exclusively for the automotive industry, acquired 321 Ignition, a mobile-first car-buying website platform.

Overfuel aims to revolutionize the mobile-first automotive-buying experience and put control back into the hands of the dealership. With a focus on speed and user experience, Overfuel provides dealers with a platform to improve their online presences, including artificial intelligence-enhanced websites, digital retailing and modern SEO practices to calculate return on investment of marketing spending.

“In an industry that’s been technologically dormant, companies like Tekion have demonstrated that an appetite for innovation still exists, paving the way for a new wave of software companies,” said Overfuel CEO Ryan Pfenninger. “Dealerships don’t need another plugin or website vendor, rather a solution that works out of the box. That’s why Overfuel has set out to consolidate every step of the customer journey into a single-point solution. This acquisition represents a significant step in our mission to revolutionize the way dealerships serve their customers online.” 

A recent report by Wattspeed found that only 39% of automotive websites meet Google’s recommended speed standards on mobile devices, ranking the automotive industry second-worst in terms of underperformance. Over 80% of car shoppers access the websites through mobile devices, presenting a big opportunity for dealerships to engage with a wider customer base.

The combined resources of Overfuel and 321 Ignition are designed to enable rapid innovation and product development, giving dealerships better options when choosing a technology partner.

In addition to the acquisition, Overfuel raised a $500,000 preseed funding round led by Elevate Ventures that it plans to use to expand its onboarding and customer success team to support over 100 new customers signed since piloting in March.

“From a technical standpoint, many of the market leaders in this space have been around for over 10 years and haven’t focused on continued innovation,” said Elevate Ventures CEO Christopher Day. “We saw an interesting opportunity with Overfuel to solve a massive industry problem. The leadership team has deep SaaS experience with a track record of building great software. We are excited about Overfuel’s growth opportunity.”