Self Inspection raises $10 million for AI vehicle damage scans

Self Inspection raised $10 million on June 30 in a round led by Sheryl Sandberg’s Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, with U.S. AutoForce and Westlake Financial joining as strategic investors. The 2021 startup uses smartphones to scan vehicles and spot damage, and says it is building the “system of record for vehicle condition.”

The funding puts more capital behind a corner of AI that is moving from eye-catching demos into the routine work of fleets, insurers and claims handlers. Self Inspection’s pitch is straightforward: capture vehicle images on a phone, let software flag damage, and reduce the manual back-and-forth that slows inspections, dispute resolution and settlement.

The company is entering a market that has already started to shift. Hertz said on April 16, 2025 that it would deploy UVeye’s AI-powered vehicle inspection systems across major U.S. airports, with its Dollar and Thrifty brands included in the rollout. That push underscored how quickly rental operators have begun testing automated scans as a way to document vehicle condition more consistently at high-volume locations.

AI damage detection has also been spreading beyond rental counters. Industry coverage has said insurers and dealers in the United States are gaining access to advanced tools that detect hidden vehicle damage, technology that had already gained traction in Europe and Israel before broader U.S. adoption. That matters because the real value of inspection software is not just image capture, but whether it can reduce labor, tighten fraud controls and shorten the time it takes to close a claim.

Self Inspection had already raised $3 million in February 2025, a sign that investors were willing to back the category before this larger round. It is one of several startups trying to define the market, alongside FocalX and UVeye, as camera-based inspection becomes a core piece of vehicle handoffs, fleet maintenance and insurance workflows.