San Diego startup Self Inspection, which builds AI-powered vehicle inspection software, has raised $10 million in a round led by Sheryl Sandberg’s venture fund, with contributions from two former Tesla executives and Westlake Financial, one of the largest auto lenders in North America.
Self Inspection says it aims to be the database for all cars — a single, trusted record that follows each vehicle “from the day it leaves the lot to the day it’s resold, refinanced or retired,” the company said in a release announcing the funding late last month.
Founded in 2021, Self Inspection began as a team of physical inspectors, according to CEO Constantine Yaremtso, who said the company encountered widespread inconsistency and missing data in vehicle condition reporting. The business also identified a broader problem: no reliable way to track a vehicle’s physical state over time.
How the vehicle inspection platform works
The company built a platform to record wear and tear throughout a vehicle’s lifecycle — when it is purchased, rented, financed, serviced, returned, resold or retired. Operators, drivers and dealers use an app to photograph damage; the platform then identifies damage, produces a standardized condition report and stores an auditable history tied to the vehicle. Today, Self Inspection says, the only auditable history often remains a paper trail.
Self Inspection reports it has completed more than 1 million inspections across rental fleets, auto finance companies, auctions and marketplaces. The company also says its customers have saved more than 300,000 operational hours and cut costs by more than $80 million so far.
“The biggest technology companies get built by transforming industries that are massive, essential and ready for change,” said Sandberg, the ex-chief operating officer of Facebook who now runs her own investment firm. “Vehicle condition touches billions of dollars in automotive decisions every year, and the data behind it is still a mess. We think Self Inspection is the team that builds the system of record the industry needs.”
Other backers named in the funding announcement include Westlake Financial, Costanoa Ventures, Rebellion Ventures and BrightCap Ventures. The company said the latest round was joined alongside earlier backers that include DVx Ventures, founded by former Tesla President Jon McNeill, and Karim Bousta, former vice president of Worldwide Service at Tesla.
