In this edition of Localogy’s Local Radar, we focus on AI and SMB-SaaS startups addressing the auto vertical.
1. Self Inspection
One of the key parts of the auto-services stack is vehicle inspections. It’s a $30 billion market in fact. And like many other processes, this is a key step to authenticate and validate one’s vehicle and its safety. But despite the importance of this function, it’s always been onerous, resulting in a part of the automotive ownership journey that can only be described as a necessary evil. When you add up all those factors, vehicle inspections are ripe for disruption. And many parts of the process specifically make them ripe for AI-based disruption. Enter Self Inspection. The San Diego based startup recently raised $3 million to deploy AI for DIY auto inspections. Specifically, it utilizes the combination of a smartphone camera, a car’s OBD2 port, and AI models that are trained on “one of the largest datasets of damaged vehicles.” The result according to the company is “one of the most thorough vehicle inspection reports available in the industry.” This is being targeted for auto lenders, dealerships and rental companies, with the thought that these entities can deploy the technology at scale. These are also entities for which the value proposition resonates most. Based on the sheer volume of cars that they manage, streamlined inspection processes can really add up to worthwhile savings and operational efficiencies. And it’s working so far: Self Inspection counts as its customers Avis and CarOffer. We’ll see where it goes next and how its latest cash infusion accelerates its momentum.
2. Numa
Moving further up the auto “stack” noted above, customer service is another area that is ripe for disruption. Numa is one company tackling this segment of the auto vertical, and recently landed a $32 million Series B round to do so. Specifically, it develops a specialized flavor of AI chatbots to automate customer service at car dealerships. This involves things like “rescuing” missed calls and helping to book service appointments. It can also give customers status updates on upcoming appointments, service underway, or other common asks. Another example is automatically collecting car information to facilitate trade-ins – often a manual process. Like many well-placed AI endeavors, the idea is to reduce headaches for local businesses and help them scale their own time/productivity by automating parts of their day. Beyond headaches, it’s a matter of effectiveness, as Numa reports that a third of car dealers miss at least a fifth of their incoming calls. That’s where Numa’s technology steps in to be a first line of defense for incoming customer queries. And it’s off to a good start with 600 dealers using the software.
3. Toma
Competing with Numa is another AI-first customer service play: Toma. It similarly helps local dealers better receive, process, and optimize incoming leads. And it recently raised a $17 million Series A round from A16Z and others. It has specifically developed an AI voice agent that can do things like help customers schedule service appointments, answer sales questions, and other things that come up. The software is trained by listening to weeks of service calls at a given dealership. That training process improves the overall AI models while tapping into nuances or specializations at a given dealer (brands, market segments, etc.). The market need for the product was inspired by the dirty little secret that auto dealers only answer a portion of incoming calls. In fact, Toma developed an AI agent to call every car dealership in America several times to discover that calls were only answered 45 percent of the time. Helping dealerships capture those lost calls is a strong value proposition, and has not only helped it land the above funding but 100 dealerships customers and quickly growing.
Header image credit: Ildar Garifullin on Unsplash
