Uweye started as a game to scan cars for safety threats, but the Israeli startup has really struck its step when its founders understood that artificial vision systems fueled by artificial intelligence could perform more typical inspections of vehicles .
Now, the company is evolving its financing strategy. Uweye announced a $ 191 million extension on Wednesday morning to its 2023 series D led by Toyota’s Woven Capital Growth Fund. The round includes a mix of $ 41 million in equity funding – with the participation of UMC Capital and Myberg – and a $ 150 million debt structure structured by Trinity Capital.
“We are installing in many locations and we are getting many data and we have signed some very strategic offers in the last year and at this moment we have more requests than we can actually support,” Amir Hever, CEO and co-founder of Uveye, said to Techcrunch in an interview. “So it is necessary to be able to finance multiple systems, distribute more units and scale really very quickly.”
The debt includes an initial commitment of $ 100 million and an option for other $ 50 million and will help Uveye distribute almost 700 of its inspection systems in 2025, said Hever.
The systems – that cars can cross and use cameras to scan the trolley, the outside and the interiors – have been popular among customers who include Amazon, Carmax (which has invested in the 2023 series) and even dealers and producers of car.
Hever said that working with those customers influenced the evolution of Uveye’s technology and business model. The company was initially focused on a car’s cart, since she was trying to modernize safety projections along the road. But customers began to ask for the possibility of inspecting things such as tire wear or scanning the outside of the car for damage.
“It was a bit of a step by step (process) to truly understand the needs of the market and how they are inspecting vehicles today and how we can help them be more efficient, to increase their revenue, to support our business,” he said Hever.
Now, Hever said, Umie is scanning almost one million cars per month.
