Eclipse supports the EV Ever market in a $31M investment

If you’re looking to buy or sell a used EV right now, what’s the first step?

The founders of Ever want to be the answer to this question. The company, which bills itself as an “AI-native, full-stack auto retail business” for electric vehicles, already has thousands of customers buying and selling their EVs on the platform.

It is now looking to grow with the help of a $31 million Series A funding round led by Eclipse, with Ibex Investors, Lifeline Ventures, and JIMCO – the financial group of the Saudi Arabian Jameel family (the original investor in Rivian) – as investors.

Over the past decade, companies like Carvana and CarMax have helped bring the car buying experience to digital. Recently, thousands of startups have tried to improve car purchases with AI, pitching ideas like voice assistants or intelligent maintenance software. Eclipse’s Jiten Behl thinks this is the wrong way to go if you’re looking to upgrade your car’s hardware, however.

“These bolt-on AI tools are really helpful,” he said in an interview with TechCrunch. He compared it to how many of the automaker’s early EVs were actually gas-powered cars that were repackaged to fit electric drivetrains. This approach came with big sales compared to building a new EV from the ground up, which was the approach taken by companies like Tesla and Rivian.

“Auto retail is worth messing with with AI, you know? It’s a lot of work, a lot of work, (a lot of) regulation,” he said.

Lasse-Mathias Nyberg, Ever’s co-founder and CEO, said in an interview that buying or selling a car involves “hundreds or thousands of different things” that the seller must do to complete the transaction. “There are serious problems or conflicts on both sides.”

In 2022, he and his team began to reduce or eliminate the problem. What he settled on after a year of research was a digital car dealer. The core tech is the orchestration group or “operating system” that can handle different workflows, whether it’s processing information provided by a potential buyer or seller, or managing traffic.

“When you’re trying to calculate, price, or name it, it depends on what you need to do. And these days, there are a lot of single-point solutions that are used,” he said. Many companies “use these tools together in an incomplete way, and you think you are on a digital journey – but if you can clean it, and if you can use the power of AI, and you can create a unified customer and remove these contradictions.”

Nyberg said building the company this way has allowed Ever’s sales team to be two to three times more successful than it would otherwise be, and he expects that to grow as the company grows. He said that this efficiency and productivity increases their margins, which can be retained as profit or passed on to the customer by offering lower prices.

He always uses this new method in his online market and in the real world. Nyberg said the hybrid model is important because seeing and testing a vehicle in person remains a key factor in the purchase process for many consumers — especially those who may be testing EVs for the first time.

Early reviews of Ever’s product have been mixed. Users another Reddit thread since last year they are divided, with some attracted by how Ever to make EVs easier to buy, while others have detailed problems finding contact with the founders of the group. He was always getting off the ground and was working undercover, and that’s why Nyberg chalked it up to learning. He said his team is working hard to ensure his system is flexible enough to meet all the company’s goals.

The biggest problem may be the overall interest in EVs, which has declined somewhat in the United States. Nyberg said he hasn’t ruled out buying or selling electric cars in the future, but he wants to stick to EVs for the foreseeable future because no dealer is focusing on these vehicles.

Behl, who spent eight years on Rivian’s leadership team, admitted to being a “hopeless romantic when it comes to EVs,” and said he still believes the industry is moving to electric vehicles because of its benefits. And he said his “first thought” when he started working on Ever was: “I wish Rivian would do this.”

More and more, Behl said, companies like Carvana are still in the single market when it comes to car sales. That’s why they see the loudest in Ever.

“Customers will continue to be more efficient when it comes to buying cars, which means there will be a digitally-led customer experience that takes all the hassle out of buying and selling a car,” he said.