Modal Teams Up with Inmar Intelligence to Revolutionize Online Car-Buying, Taps COO Sameer Bhalla as New CEO

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Aug 03, 2021, 07:00 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Modal, which provides e-commerce solutions to the world's leading automotive dealers and brands, today announced a commercial agreement with Inmar Intelligence, a data-driven, technology-enabled services company. Together, the companies will streamline the automotive e-commerce experience, improve qualified leads, drive higher sales conversions, and deliver improved ROI for dealerships.

Spearheading the recent collaboration, Sameer Bhalla has been tapped as the company's newly appointed chief executive officer. Since joining Modal in August 2020 as chief operating officer, he has been instrumental in driving the company's product, engineering, and corporate strategy. Modal's founder Aaron Krane will continue as executive chairman.

"Under Aaron's strong leadership in an ever-consolidating market, we've proudly remained one of the few independent and privately held key players, experiencing an 800 percent increase in online transactions year-on-year, which Inmar Intelligence will accelerate," said Bhalla. "By leveraging Inmar's segmentation, targeting, and lifecycle-attribution capabilities, we're catapulting analytics to the forefront. More than a transaction, it's connecting with the right customer at the right time, and we are already seeing spikes in order conversion."

As CEO, Bhalla brings over a decade of high-growth technology expertise as both an exited founder and growth investor, during which he has spearheaded all facets in a technology company's lifecycle. Most recently, he built and exited San Francisco-based Swoop, a vertical SaaS roadside-assistance platform, for which the company raised $3 million in seed capital and scaled up to over $100 million in gross transaction value and more than 40 employees. Post-acquisition, Bhalla served on the senior executive staff of Agero, Inc., the leading enterprise provider of digital driver-assistance services.

"Since joining the company a year ago, Sameer has been playing a pivotal leadership role, and it's great to finally make it official by announcing him as Modal's new CEO," said Krane. "His deep expertise in operations, team building, and partnership development throughout the automotive ecosystem, starting with Inmar Intelligence, will continue to be a tremendous asset to the company's growth."

Modal's current automotive e-commerce solution encompasses the entire buying process, including trade-in, financing, and final purchase documents. Combining those capabilities with Inmar Intelligence's deep experience with CPG and retail brands to segment and target individual audiences will empower auto dealers to increase overall ROI by seizing the digital transformation of traditional auto-buying. As such, this enhanced technology allows auto dealers to segment consumers to secure highly qualified leads, deliver personalized messages to engage customers, and increase conversions.

"The COVID crisis has pushed online car-buying to unprecedented levels, and that consumer behavior is here to stay," said Rob Weisberg, SVP, Automotive, at Inmar Intelligence. "In working with Modal, we are leveraging aggregated purchase data and AI to drive more qualified visitors to the dealer websites and improve visitor-to-buyer conversion. Simply put, dealers will sell more cars online by driving more customers through the sales funnel at a higher rate."

COVID-19 has accelerated the need for auto dealerships to adapt to new customer expectations, which will likely continue in a post-pandemic environment. By offering a complete sales process online, Modal's partnership with Inmar Intelligence has streamlined the shopper journey to deliver the highest ROI for each dealer.

About Modal:
Modal provides e-commerce to the world's leading automotive dealers and brands, empowering customers with transparent digital commerce that fits into their existing website and showroom experiences. Founded in 2015 in San Francisco, the company delivers contactless, optimized, and fully transacted online-buying. For more information, visit modalup.com and follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

About Inmar Intelligence Commerce Accelerated.™
Inmar Intelligence is a leading data and tech-enabled services company. $120 billion dollars of commerce runs through our market-driven platforms which are propelling digital transformation through unified data, workflows, and fund flows to help leading Fortune 5000 companies, emerging brands and health systems drive innovation. Throughout our 41-year history, we have served retailers, manufacturers, pharmacies, health systems, government, and employers as their trusted intermediary in helping them redefine success. For more information about Inmar, please follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook, or call (866) 440-6917.

SOURCE Modal