Automotive Startups funded by Y Combinator (YC) 2025

The problem we solve: 56% of dealership leads arrive after business hours, and most dealers lose these potential customers to competitors who happen to be available 24/7. Missing after-hours calls alone costs the average dealership $1M annually in lost revenue. We built Flai to fix this - AI assistants that answer dealership calls 24/7, scheduling test drives, oil changes, or running outbound recall campaigns so no opportunity slips away. The result: No more missed opportunities, no more losing customers to competitors. Our founding team has built voice AI products at HappyRobot, scaled infrastructure at Uber for millions of users, and applied data science at Netflix to solve operational challenges. We're not just answering phones, we're helping dealerships win in an AI-first world where availability determine who gets the sale.

Curo enables electric vehicle fleets to lease EV chargers. We do this by providing a standardized process so that any EV charger owner can host a fleet, such as an office building overnight when their employees go home. Owners of EV chargers get <15% usage after paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to install, and fleets are rapidly trying to electrify yet charging is a huge bottleneck. Curo increases revenue 5x for charger owners and enables fleets to electrify instantly, at a fraction of the cost. We're live across 5 states, having grown 50% MoM for the past 6 months. Curo is already backed by investors like Blue Bear, Not Boring, Slow and Eniac.

⚡️Olympian manufactures timeless, art-deco electric vehicles. We challenge today’s mundane, over-standardized car designs produced by the traditional automotive industry. ► Olympian EVs are powered by an open, modular EV architecture. We are pioneering a new modular production model in the U.S., delivering 85–90% reductions in tooling and machinery costs, and achieved 60–80% faster production-lead-times compared to legacy automakers in the U.S. 💸 Revenue Backlog: $61M+ 🚗 Number of Orders: 790+ 🏭 Production Capacity: 2,400 units in 2026 ✅ Backed by: YC, NVIDIA, Climate Capital, Mobility Vision, Amazon AWS, Soma & Collaborative. -- Olympian has two pillars: 1) Art-deco, aesthetic, but simple electric cars 2) Modular EV architecture that enables rapid, cost-efficient production. Olympian rejects today's mundane and over-standardized car experience. We challenge the 40-year status-quo in automotive design, and bring aesthetic, simplicity and color back to the cars. We are manufacturing electric vehicles with our innovative 'modular' vehicle & drivetrain architecture (MVDS), providing Olympian with strong cost and lead-time advantages compared to legacy automakers like Tesla and Ford. Olympian is disrupting 120+ years old automotive industry and targeting to capture 7% market share in the U.S. automotive market by 2030. Olympian developed a fully-decoupled, modular, EV drivetrain system (eMVDS) that provides a 'Lego-like' vehicle architecture. Built on 4-core-hardware and 2-core software modules, Olympus eMVDS platform unlocks 80% reduction in tooling & machinery costs and built ~60% faster production lead time.

SixWheel makes diesel trucks hybrid-electric in 3 minutes at zero upfront cost while delivering $25k more profit per truck annually.

It is cumbersome to maintain/repair vehicles in Africa. Vehicle owners currently have 2 options to choose from; very expensive and geographically limited branded mechanic garages (less than 1% of the supply pool) or unvetted roadside mechanics (about 99% of the supply pool). About 95% of vehicle owners cannot afford branded garages where quality and reliable service delivery can be guaranteed and thus rely on roadside mechanics. However, low quality and transparency are typical issues associated with roadside mechanics. We created a network of vetted mechanics, spare part vendors and an app that enables easy booking, payment and mechanic matching process. Via the mecho app, a customer or business can make a request for any automobile service (repairs or regular servicing) or part.

Faction Technology, Inc. is a leader in developing right-sized driverless vehicle fleets. As pioneers in supervised autonomous mobility, Faction is dedicated to creating innovative solutions that redefine the future of transportation. With a commitment to sustainability, safety, and technological excellence, Faction is driving the evolution of autonomous mobility for a smarter, more connected world. Learn more at www.faction.us.

Mars Auto is building autonomous trucks to completely automate warehouse-to-warehouse truck operations.

Zendar develops high-definition radar for autonomous vehicles.

May Mobility is a leader in autonomous vehicle technology development and deployment. With more than 300,000 autonomous rides to date, May Mobility is committed to delivering safe, efficient and sustainable shuttle solutions designed to complement today’s public transportation options. The company’s ultimate goal is to realize a world where self-driving systems make transportation more accessible and reliable, the roads safer, and encourage better land use in order to foster more green, vibrant, and livable spaces.

Embark Technology develops self-driving truck software. Embark was the first self-driving truck company to achieve an autonomous coast-to-coast drive, the first to reach 100,000 miles driven on public roads, and the first to open a network of transfer points. Embark went public on NASDAQ in 2021 and was acquired by Applied Intuition in 2023.

Palifer decreases unplanned failures and increase schedule compliance by extracting insights from your historical logs. https://patents.google.com/patent/US11256757B1/en

At Phiar, we are building the first AI-powered AR navigation driving software solution that runs on a smartphone and in-vehicle displays, utilizing our ultra-lightweight road understanding AI that runs completely at-the-edge, in real-time, all on just a smartphone-level compute. Our mission is to enhance driving safety, facilitate more intuitive wayfinding, and connect drivers with their surrounding environments.

We are building self-driving shuttles for transportation within campuses like universities, resorts, airports, and retirement communities. Website: www.auro.ai

Cruise is building the world’s most advanced, all-electric, self-driving car technology to safely connect people with the places, things, and experiences they care about. Self-driving cars will help save lives, reimagine cities, redefine time in transit, and restore freedom of movement for individuals who live in dense urban settings. Acquired by GM in 2016.