Self Inspection raises $10M to turn smartphones into vehicle inspectors

Self Inspection has raised $10M to replace inconsistent manual vehicle checks with AI-assisted assessments generated from ordinary smartphone images.

What happened

The round was led by Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, the family office of Sheryl Sandberg. U.S. AutoForce, Westlake Financial, Costanoa Ventures, Rebellion Ventures and BrightCap Ventures also participated.

Self Inspection’s software guides users through photographing a vehicle, then analyses the images for body damage and overall condition. The company sells the system to rental fleets, automotive lenders, auctions and online marketplaces. It says it has completed more than one million inspections, with Stellantis Financial Services among its customers.

The new funding is expected to support product expansion and broader commercial deployment.

Why it matters

Vehicle-condition data affects lease returns, lending decisions, insurance claims, fleet maintenance and used-car pricing. Those processes often depend on in-person inspectors, inconsistent photography and subjective descriptions.

A reliable smartphone-based system could lower inspection costs and make condition data more standardised across transactions. It could also allow vehicles to be assessed more frequently without sending a specialist to every location.

The bigger picture

The opportunity is larger than image recognition alone. If Self Inspection becomes trusted by lenders, insurers and marketplaces, its assessments could become a shared data layer across the vehicle lifecycle.

That requires extremely consistent performance. Customers must be confident that the software does not miss damage, exaggerate wear or produce different results under changing lighting and camera conditions. In high-value disputes, some buyers may still require a physical inspection, so the product’s strongest near-term role may be triage and standardisation rather than complete replacement.