\n<\/p>\n
If you want to buy or sell a used EV right now, what\u2019s the first step you\u2019d take? <\/p>\n
A startup called Ever wants to be the answer to that question. The company, which bills itself as the first \u201cAI-native, full-stack auto retail business\u201d for electric vehicles, already has thousands of customers buying and selling their EVs on the platform.<\/p>\n
Now it\u2019s looking to scale with help from a $31 million Series A funding round led by Eclipse, with Ibex Investors, Lifeline Ventures, and JIMCO \u2014 the investment arm of the Saudi Arabian Jameel family (an early investor in Rivian) \u2014 as co-investors.<\/p>\n
Over the last decade, companies like Carvana and Carmax helped usher in the digital car-buying experience. More recently, myriad startups have tried to improve the car-buying experience with AI, pitching ideas like voice agents or smarter scheduling software. Eclipse\u2019s Jiten Behl thinks this is the wrong approach if you want to really modernize the automotive retail experience, though.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese bolt-on AI tools are band-aids,\u201d he said in an interview with TechCrunch. He likened it to how many major automakers\u2019 first EVs were essentially combustion vehicles that were repackaged to fit electric drivetrains. That approach came with major tradeoffs compared to designing a new EV from the ground up, which was the approach companies like Tesla and Rivian took.<\/p>\n
\u201cAuto retail is a perfect candidate for disrupting with AI, you know? It\u2019s a lot of process, lot of labor, [very] rules-based,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Lasse-Mathias Nyberg, Ever co-founder and CEO, said in an interview that buying or selling a car typically triggers \u201chundreds or thousands of different actions\u201d that a retailer needs to perform in order to complete the transaction. \u201cThere\u2019s massive complexities or frictions on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n
Techcrunch event<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBoston, MA<\/span> In 2022, he and his team set out to reduce or remove those complexities. What they settled on after a year of research was a digital-first auto retailer. The core tech is an orchestration layer or \u201coperating system\u201d that can handle all the different workflows behind a transaction, whether it\u2019s processing information submitted by a prospective buyer or seller, or managing the vehicle inventory.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you do appraisals, or pricing, or titling, it\u2019s very deterministic in terms of what steps need to be taken. And today, there are lots of single point solution tools that are used,\u201d he said. Most companies \u201cuse these tools together in a very inefficient manner, and you think that you are on a digital journey \u2014 but if you actually could clean-sheet it, and if you actually could use the power of agentic AI, and you can create one unified customer experience and remove all these micro-frictions.\u201d<\/p>\n Nyberg claimed that building the company this way has allowed Ever\u2019s sales team to be two to three times more productive than they would be otherwise, and he expects that to scale as the company grows. He said this extra efficiency and productivity beefs up their margins, which can be booked as profit or passed along to the customer by offering lower prices.<\/p>\n Ever applies this fresh approach to both its online marketplace and physical locations. Nyberg said the hybrid model is important because seeing and trying a car in person remains crucial to the shopping experience for a lot of buyers \u2014 especially those who might be assessing EVs for the first time. <\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJune 23, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n