FundraiseJun 23, 2026, 15:08 UTC

Partly raises £37.8m ($50m) to scale auto-parts AI into the US

What's the deal? Partly, a company building AI infrastructure for the automotive repair sector, has raised £37.8m ($50m) to fund its expansion into the US.

Founded in New Zealand and now anchoring its US operations in Austin, Texas, the firm makes Interpreter — what it calls the world's first foundation model purpose-built for automotive parts.

The model took five years to develop, training on human feedback and synthetic data to connect the parts supply chain. It has already secured 50 manufacturer agreements.

Why now? The raise was led by DST Global, whose portfolio includes Anthropic, Meta, Alibaba, Airbnb, and Spotify.

With the funding, Partly is entering the world's largest auto repair market — the US, valued at more than $100bn.

It is recruiting across engineering, business development, and product management to grow its US footprint.

What could go wrong? The US market is competitive, and Partly is betting that general AI models cannot crack the problem it has spent five years solving.

"The model architecture is extremely nuanced," said co-founder and chief executive Levi Fawcett. "There's a reason general models don't solve it, and why we've been able to own the frontier AI here."

The signal: Investors are backing AI built for narrow, complex industries rather than broad consumer tools.

"Not since the creation of the assembly line or EVs has the auto industry experienced significant innovation," Fawcett said, framing parts supply as the next layer ripe for AI.