South African startup Carscan, a leading AI and AR app active in the auto-insurance space, Augmented reality app, has raised a follow-on funding round worth ZAR20 million (US$1.3) million to help it further expand operations.
Carscan is an augmented reality (AR) app with embedded artificial intelligence (AI) that creates an accurate, reliable, agnostic, complete, and traceable digital record of a car. The platform helps automotive ecosystems buy, sell, rent, service, insure, finance and auction cars with great confidence by eliminating fraud, governance, and industry risks.
The digital application allows anyone to assess and extract details of a car in less than a minute, expediting the insurance claim process from weeks to minutes. Carscan claims to be a global first.
The startup, founded by Obins Choudhary and Chander Prakash, raised a seed round in late 2020, led by Kalon Venture Partners alongside Launch Africa Ventures and the IDF. The new round includes the same three investors, as well as Allan Gray E2 Ventures and AlphaCode.
Carscan has seen tremendous traction with South African, Nigerian and Indian customers, and recently completed successful proof of concepts in some Gulf countries. Although its technology has a range of other use cases, its immediate focus is on inspection and the insurance of cars.
“Carscan assists the consumer and makes the entire claims process simple and frictionless,” Prakash said. “Carscan is working with a number of local and international clients and has been developed in conjunction with one of the largest players in the automotive sector in South Africa.”
Kalon Venture Partners CEO Clive Butkow said the Carscan team had shown exceptional talent, and that their offering was solving a large problem across the insurance and automotive industries.
“The company continues to grow at a rapid rate which is evidenced by their traction and market acceptance,” he said.
“This follow-on round is testimony to the growth of the company and the Carscan’s team’s ability to deliver 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’s fund executive, said he was proud to make Carscan the first investment through AlphaCode’s 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,” he said.
