Electric vehicles aren’t immune to visiting a mechanic shop.
That is the thesis of a startup called Kinetic, a Santa Ana-based firm that is creating high-tech repair centers for EVs, hybrids and autonomous vehicles.
“Electric vehicles don’t traditionally require as much service because they have 10 times fewer moving parts,” Co-founder and Chief Executive Nikhil Naikal told the Business Journal. “When they are in an accident, the digital systems take a backseat and aren’t reset correctly.”
The company recently closed on a $21 million Series B funding round led by Menlo Ventures. The funding comes amid the automotive industry’s efforts to integrate more advanced technologies in vehicles, such as Waymo and Pony.ai’s self-driving robotaxis.
The company has won the backing of Menlo Ventures’ partner Shawn Carolan, who was also an early investor in Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: UBER) and Roku, Inc. (Nasdaq: ROKU).
“We’re confident Nikhil and the Kinetic team have the expertise to scale this model and help meet the increased demand for efficient repair of modern vehicles,” Carolan said in a statement.
Also participating in the round were returning investors Lux Capital, Construct Capital and Haystack Ventures, along with new investors Allstate Strategic Ventures and Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures.
Big Expansion Plans
Kinetic already has four service centers in Santa Ana, San Bernardino, Lake Elsinore and Las Vegas. Its next location is scheduled to open in Sacramento.
“We’re going to be all over the Orange County area in the coming months,” Naikal said.
Beyond expanding its network, the funding will also help support improving software and hardware technology used at the centers.
Kinetic is focused on digital repairs opposed to physical fixes.
Modern vehicles are often described as “computers on wheels” where they are equipped with advanced technologies such as touch screen interfaces, driver assistance systems and biometric authentication.
While traditional auto repair shops are capable of fixing engines as well as bumpers and windshields, they lag in maintenance of the software and sensors that need to be recalibrated after an accident, the company says.
Kinetic’s repair hubs have robotic technology built with artificial intelligence software and computer vision to make these high-level repairs. In addition to calibration, Kinetic also offers diagnostic scanning and module programming.
Each center can service up to 80 vehicles per day with each repair taking 60 minutes or less, according to the company.
Kinetic operates through revenue-sharing agreements with dealerships and auto shops, so after a vehicle has had its physical repairs, Kinetic will pick it up and complete the final digital repairs before it is returned to the vehicle owner.
“One thing that we aim to do is to make sure that the cars are reset and brought back to their factory-engineered state of safety,” Naikal said. “We want to do it better, faster and cheaper than anyone else.”
Increasing Demand
The company said it’s seeing increased demand for its services in states like Nevada, Texas and Utah.
“It’s not just the coastal cities,” Naikal said.
EV sales are on the rise within the United States. Last year, the combined sales of hybrid, plug-in-hybrid and battery electric vehicles consisted 16% of total night light-duty vehicle sales, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This compares to 13% of total sales the year prior.
Kinetic estimates that 250 million digitized vehicles will be sold by 2030.
As more electric and hybrid vehicles are purchased within the U.S., the collision repair industry must adapt to meet the needs of modern vehicles, Naikal said.
Naikal co-founded Kinetic in 2021 with Chief Technology Officer Sander Marques and Chief Operating Officer Christopher Weber. All three bring experience from the automotive industry.
Naikal previously founded and was CEO of San Francisco-based Mapper.AI, which creates machine-readable maps for robotaxis and delivery robots. It was acquired by Velodyne Lidar in 2019.
Following the acquisition, Naikal became vice president of software engineering at Velodyne Lidar around the same time it went public after combining with Graf Industrial Corp. in 2020.
During this time, Naikal helped provide software sensors and technology to car manufacturers and began to think about what happened to vehicles after a collision.
“We were focusing on how cars are built, but not how they’re serviced aftermarket,” Naikal said.
Marques worked alongside Naikal at Mapper and Velodyne, while Weber spent more than seven years at Uber in various roles, including operations and product leader.
