Veteran Raleigh entrepreneur Scot Wingo has stepped down as CEO of the Spiffy car care services company to focus on the Triangle Tweener Fund, which invests in promising startups.
Spiffy co-founder and president Karl Murphy is now the CEO, Wingo said in a Linkedin statement. “This transition comes with strategic shifts in Spiffy’s priorities as we explore not only the e-service side of the biz, but the device and software areas as well where we have a lot of exciting traction,” Wingo said. He will remain a Spiffy director.
Founded a decade ago, Spiffy is an automotive care app that enables customers to book various vehicle services, including oil changes, car washing and nano-ceramic coating. The company started in Durham but has several dozen franchisees across the U.S., according to Entrepreneur magazine’s annual list.
In 2022, Spiffy raised $32 million in funding, including $10 million from Edison Partners, a Nashville, Tennessee-based private equity company.
Wingo said Triangle Tweener Fund invests in 10 to 15 early-stage companies annually, typically firms with at least 10 employees and $1 million in annual revenue. He coined the term “Tweeners.”
In July, the fund invested a combined $804,000 in 12 startups, Triangle Business Journal reported.
Wingo, 56, declined a request for comment about his departure from Spiffy. He was previously CEO of Morrisville-based e-commerce company ChannelAdvisor from 2001 to 2015. The publicly traded company was acquired by CommerceHub (now Rithum) in 2022. He also cofounded and led Stingray Software from 1994 to 1999.
