Sheryl Sandberg puts $10 million into startup that turns your smartphone into a car inspector

Sheryl Sandberg is betting big on a San Diego startup that lets anyone inspect a car with just a smartphone camera. Her family office, Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, led a $10 million funding round into Self Inspection, a company backed by former Tesla president Jon McNeill’s DVx Ventures.

Founded in 2021, the startup has already processed over a million vehicle inspections for rental fleets, finance companies, auctions, and marketplaces, including Stellantis’ financial arm, which uses the platform for lease-end checks.

“The biggest technology companies are built by transforming industries that are massive, essential, and ready for change,” Sandberg said in a statement. “Vehicle condition touches billions of dollars in automotive decisions every year, yet the data remains fragmented. That is changing.

S. AutoForce, automotive lender Westlake Financial, and early-stage funds Costanoa Ventures, Rebellion Ventures, and BrightCap Ventures.

Self Inspection’s pitch is refreshingly simple: customers like Stellantis send a link to anyone with a smartphone, and the software guides them through photographing the car. ” The images are then compared against one of the largest datasets of damaged vehicles to detect damage, estimate repair costs, and generate a detailed PDF report, the kind you’d normally only get from a body shop.

The platform has already saved customers over $80 million and more than 300,000 operational hours. Self Inspection plans to use the new funding to build more products, reach more enterprise clients, and expand into Europe.