A number of startups are racing to make vehicle inspections faster, easier, and cheaper. Self Inspection, a startup based in San Diego, thinks it has them all beat with its AI-powered service — and now it has convinced outside investors.
Self Inspection, founded in 2021, is set to announce Thursday it’s raised $3 million in seed round co-led by Costanoa Ventures and DVx Ventures, the firm run by former Tesla president Jon McNeill. Joining the round was Westlake Financial, which handles more than one million vehicle transactions annually.
Karim Bousta, partner at DVx Ventures, believes the traditional vehicle inspection process is ripe for innovation. Self Inspection’s technology “not only streamlines operations for auto lenders, dealerships and rental companies, but also sets a new benchmark for quality, reliability and a seamless digital experience in the $30 billion vehicle inspection market,” Bousta said in a statement.
The seed round is validation of the tech the company has been working on for the last few years, CEO Constantine Yaremtso told TechCrunch. Self Inspection already counts Avis and CarOffer (a digital wholesaler owned by CarGurus) as customers, along with Westlake Financial.
“Basically we’re going to start expanding, growing, and scaling,” Yaremtso said about the funding.
Self Inspection has taken a much different path from UVEye, which recently raised $191 million for its AI-powered drive-through inspection technology.
Self Inspection only needs a smartphone camera, although its software can also leverage data pulled from a car’s OBD2 port.
The company trained its AI models on what it describes as “one of the largest datasets of damaged vehicles.” Those models can quickly detect damage and assess the severity, before generating a cost estimate and “one of the most thorough vehicle inspection reports available in the industry.”
“What we deliver is actually a fully detailed PDF report that you would normally only get from a body shop, which will tell you what labor needs to be done on the damage, how much it costs to repair, how many parts do you need, and so on,” Yaremtso said.
Self Inspection’s service is designed to be simple but configurable, which also sets it apart from competitors like Ravin, Yaremtso said.
In other words, Self Inspection’s software is not one-size-fits-all.
What that means for customers is access to a slick back-end configurator. For instance, if a fleet or vehicle marketplace wants to prioritize certain high-wear areas of a car, or add a step to make sure an EV’s charging cable is in the trunk, they can just drag and drop those in Self Inspection’s software.
Self Inspection is also designed to be easier to use.
The software doesn’t require users to be a specific distance away from a car as they take photos or videos, like other services do. And for now, it’s not even a standalone app. Self Inspection integrates the software into its customers’ own workflows, and all vehicle inspections are done through a smartphone’s web browser — accessed after a user gets texted or emailed a link.
“Everyone has a good camera, everyone has a good phone, everyone knows how to capture photos. As soon as they receive text message or email, it’s easy to go,” Yaremtso said. “We’re trying to give this tool to marketplaces, or banks, so anyone can inspect super simply and expedite the sales cycle process.”
