Partly, a technology company targeting the automotive industry, closed $50 million in Series B led by DST Global. The investment places a $500 million valuation on the company and represents a significant milestone in its efforts to grow its vehicle parts identification platform.
Founded by Levi Fawcett and Nathan Taylor in 2020 out of Christchurch, New Zealand, the company now calls Austin, Texas home but still has roots in San Francisco. The firm has expanded its workforce to 160 employees across 20 countries.
The company is also working on developing Interpreter, which will be a kind of unique model that recognizes the parts for the according vehicles. The process, called fitment, involves cross-referencing parts according to trim levels, production locations, model years and manufacturer specifications. Partly notes that this continues to be a challenging task for general-purpose AI systems given the range of vehicle variants.
Partly claims its platform was taught using years of industry data, human feedback, and information gained through agreements with over 50 manufacturers. Interpreter was able to demonstrate much higher accuracy on 50 Toyota repair jobs compared to general AI models that did not have access to automotive catalog data.
The investment is an outlier for DST Global, which has backed major tech companies including Facebook, Alibaba, Airbnb and Spotify, as well as Anthropic. Nonetheless, the firm has increasingly concentrated on businesses using high-tech capabilities in real-world sectors.
DST Global led the round with partial interest from a number of prominent investors. According to Fawcett, the automotive parts market is a major market that has high growth potential over an extended period of time, and said the company is only focused on creating technology to enable better efficiency for technicians while minimizing administrative work.
The company's newly raised capital will help fund development of the next generation of Interpreter, as well as bolster its computing capabilities in Europe and build sales and marketing efforts within the West.
Including this latest funding round, Partly has raised $92.4 million in total. The firm had raised $37 and was led by Octopus Ventures, Square Peg, Blackbird, Shasta Venture Partners and Ten13.
U.S. collision repair generates over $100 billion per year and there are a few hundred-thousand independent repair shops in the US alone, so Partly is going after a pretty big market opportunity here. The company is optimistic that accelerating interest in tech-driven repair solutions are creating an environment conducive to greater adoption of its platform.
Business Outstanders brings you sharp insights on tech, business, entrepreneurship, law, crypto, and more. We uncover what’s next. Stay updated, sign up for our newsletter and be part of the future!
