Self Inspection, developer of an artificial intelligence-powered vehicle inspection platform, has closed a $3 million seed round co-led by Costanoa Ventures and DVx Ventures, with participation from auto finance company Westlake Financial.

The platform is designed to provide standardized condition reports in minutes with increased accuracy.

“Vehicle inspections are expensive, can take weeks to complete and rely on outdated methods with a significant margin of error,” founder and CEO Constantine Yaremtso said in a news release. “Slow, inaccurate and expensive inspections create obstacles and a poor experience in millions of mobile transactions.

“Our tech completes inspections with greater speed, accuracy and customization, which can save financial institutions millions of dollars and speed up a sales process by weeks.”

Yaremtso, a Ukrainian immigrant, founded the company in 2021 with former leaders from Apple, NVIDIA and Coinbase to add AI and automotive experience. He said Self Inspection plans to use the funds to expand its engineering team in Ukraine and the U.S. to accelerate product development and improve machine learning algorithms to optimize and expand use cases.

“Innovation that can modernize a massive traditional industry like automotive and solve a critical need through AI is poised for long-term growth,” Costanoa Ventures managing partner Greg Sands said. “Self Inspection built a reliable AI-powered vehicle inspection platform that ensures data-backed trust every time a vehicle changes hands. That will prove radically useful as the industry evolves.”

Self Inspection said its inspection platform, based on advances in computer vision and AI models, creates a detailed report of the entire vehicle, including exterior, interior, tires and mechanical components, with 99% accuracy.

The company said its technology is currently being used by rental car giant Avis, with its Alaska Rent A Car licensee the first to fully deploy it, as well as CarGurus’ wholesale platform CarOffer and investor Westlake, whose president Ian Anderson expressed excitement about helping Self Inspection “bring this product to life.”

“Westlake Financial is already integrating Self Inspection across our business units and have seen significant value to detect and assess issues, as well as substantial savings we can pass to our consumers,” he said. “We need to maintain accurate records of a vehicle’s condition to ensure correct valuations, manage risk effectively, prevent fraud and determine fair prices for our customers. Self Inspection allows us to streamline and standardize our processes, ensuring accurate vehicle assessments with precise, data-backed reports at scale.”

Self Inspection said its technology is significantly more accurate than photo-based models, which it said cannot effectively detect subtle defects or mechanical issues. The company said its proprietary AI models are trained on large datasets of damaged vehicles to quickly detect and assess damage severity, providing detailed cost estimates for repairs.

“The traditional vehicle inspection process is ripe for innovation,” DVx Ventures partner Karim Bousta said, “and Self Inspection’s solution addresses a critical need by providing accurate, efficient and scalable inspections. This 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.”