South African augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Carscan has raised follow-on funding worth over $1 million (R15.4 million), to help it further scale and expand its operations.
The new round was led by venture capital firms Kalon Venture Partners and Launch Africa, and entrepreneurial financing institution IDF Capital, as well as Allan Gray, E2 Ventures and AlphaCode, a fintech start-ups incubator.
Carscan is an AR mobile app, embedded with AI, to provide an immersive experience to create an accurate and traceable digital record of a car. The app helps users detect and analyse vehicle exterior, wheel and glass damage by taking an image of the vehicle part and scanning it, to get an assessment of the damage, or to extract vehicle data.
It allows anyone to assess and extract details of a car in less than a minute, expediting the insurance claim process and alleviating all the frustration and time wastage usually experienced.
This means firms in the automotive ecosystems can buy, sell, rent, service, insure, finance and auction cars with confidence, eliminating fraud and other industry risks.
Carscan’s founders, Obins Choudhary and Chander Prakash, say they identified a gap in the automotive industry that has to date not been disintermediated.
Although the Carscan technology has a range of other use cases, its immediate focus is on inspection and insurance of cars.
“Carscan assists the consumer and makes the entire claims process simple and frictionless,” says Prakash.
“The company is working with a number of local and international clients, and [the technology] has been developed in conjunction with one of the largest players in the automotive sector in South Africa.”
According to the founders, Carscan has seen traction with South African, Nigerian and Indian customers, and recently completed successful proof-of-concepts in some Gulf countries.
The company recently received a funding boost from some of its current funders and is looking to scale its technology locally and beyond South African boarders.
Kalon Venture Partners CEO Clive Butkow adds: “The Carscan team have shown exceptional talent and have shown their offering is solving a large problem across the insurance and automotive industries.
“This follow-on round is testimony to the growth of the company. Carscan’s team delivers a solution solving a large problem across industries. The solution will disrupt the motor industry and make lives easier for numerous stakeholders in the automobile and insurance value chains.”
Abu Cassim, AlphaCode fund executive, adds: “We’re very proud of this being our first investment through our newly-established fund. Carscan is a great fit for our broader group and the founding team has shown exceptional aptitude in executing on this solution. We look forward to seeing them grow this solution across various markets.”
Share