July 18, 2023 — JM Family Enterprises Inc. is taking the lead in a new growth funding round for Skaivision, a computer vision artificial intelligence solutions provider for automotive dealerships. 

Mark Queen, Skaivision founder and CEO, unveiled the concept at the AUTOVATE conference in December 2021. Since then, he raised a seed round, including investment from dealers, developed the software, and began rolling out the company’s Computer Vision AI solution to customers in January. 

Skaivision’s software transforms dealerships’ existing camera networks from a passive dead operating expense into an active solution providing real-time alerts of potential customer service and bottleneck issues while also highlighting new revenue opportunities.  

Early use cases include reducing quick lube times, license plate recognition with vehicle acquisition offers, and proactive customer service alerts. 

The latest round, which consists of several of Skaivision’s initial seed investors, will also include new investor partners, some of whom may be owners of dealer groups. 

Kai Ramadan, vice president of Fixed Operations for JM Family’s subsidiary Southeast Toyota Distributors, will join Skaivision’s Board of Directors.

Queen says the investment will fund Skai’s continued research and development while delivering on Skai’s growing pipeline of customers. 

“SKAI has a highly differentiated and impactful approach which leverages AI-powered Computer Vision technology to help automotive dealers provide employees with modern tools needed to enhance the customer experience, remove cost and deliver ROI,” said Pearl Percy, Chief Corporate Development Officer, JM Family Enterprises. “JM Family is committed to investing and partnering with innovative leaders, utilizing our sector expertise and capital to tackle modern challenges and create real value for our stakeholders and dealers.”

The country’s 17th largest company on the Forbes list of America’s Largest Private Companies, JM Family is an $18 billion automotive powerhouse known mainly for owning Southeast Toyota Distributors, which distributes vehicles, parts, and accessories to 177 Toyota dealerships in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. 

Founded by the late Jim Moran in 1968, the JM empire also includes JM Lexus, one of the world’s top-selling Lexus stores, Southeast Toyota Finance, J&MA Group, JM Family Holdings, and companies serving the in-home services franchising industry, and titling and escrow services.  

In addition to its most recent investment in Skaivision, JM’s portfolio of strategic minority investments include The Predictive Index, Recurrent, and ApplePie Capital.