NuBrakes mobile auto service secures $9M in funding

AUSTIN, Texas — NuBrakes Mobile Brake Repair, a two-year old mobile auto- servicing platform active in four southern states, has attracted $9 million in a Series A funding round led by Canvas Ventures and other investors and has expanded into its ninth market — Knoxville, Tenn.

With its Series A funding, NuBrakes said it plans to expand throughout the Southeast and Atlantic coast and offer additional mobile services, including oil changes, tire changes, tune-ups and suspension, while also doubling the size of its technician team.

Austin-based NuBrakes services nine markets in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas and operates about 50 service vehicles. The company provides a service-based mobile app offering same-day auto services to customers and fleet operators.

As its name implies, NuBrake's initial focus was on brake service when it was founded in May 2019. It has since been expanding its service offering on the consumer side of the business to oil changes and tire rotations.

On the fleet side, the company offers a suite of preventative maintenance services, including battery replacement, oil changes, tire rotations, suspension replacement, alternator services, wipers, etc.

"As we perfect that service delivery on the fleet side of things, we will then branch that back over to consumers," NuBrakes CEO and founder Walker Drewett told Tire Business.

The company initially focused on servicing consumers and then expanded to servicing fleets, such as plumbers, landscape crews, delivery drivers and field service workers.

"The demand for fleet has been quite astounding, so we are rapidly building out our service offerings and technology to empower that customer set," he said.

He originally started his business as NuWash in 2016, as an on-demand mobile car wash business in Austin and Dallas, Texas. While customers liked getting their cars cleaned at their homes or place of work, he said the service wasn't solving their bigger issues of maintenance needs.

"We launched NuBrakes in May 2019 with the vision of building a connected vehicle service platform and a mission of building the most loved, trusted and reliable company in car care," he said.

The company employs skilled technicians as full-time employees, provides them with fully-equipped mobile-service vans and offers steady work schedules, competitive pay, health benefits and stock options, he said.

"One of our key differentiators is the fact that our technicians are full-time, W-2 employees which enables us to have strong control over that customer experience," Mr. Drewett said.

"It's also a key reason why we have a 90-net promoters score in an industry that has a negative-13 net promoter score. So delivering a trustworthy transparent customer experience is of the utmost importance and that is our single most important value proposition that we can deliver to our customers, is that trusted transparency."

NuBrakes said it also "connects with on-board telematics systems to deliver proactive and scheduled service, maximizing uptime and enabling greater operational efficiencies."

NuBrakes claims its fleet-maintenance-as-a-service platform allows fleet operators to automate their vehicle maintenance, and organize all scheduling, inspection history, communications and payments in one location.

"We're building proprietary technology that enables our platform to connect directly with the vehicle. In an algorithmic way they diagnose and predict when the vehicle is in need of maintenance or repairs. That way your next oil change, brake repair, tire replacement is only a click away. And further more you're able to schedule it before you actually encounter that issue," Mr. Drewett said.

NuBrakes claims its mobile auto service is up to 30% more affordable than brick-and-mortar auto shops.

"Consumers and businesses spend $185 billion per year on auto maintenance, repair and tire services; this number is much higher when you factor in the opportunity cost of managing repairs, including lost revenue, and time spent on each service for business fleets," Mr. Drewett said.

"We envision a world where you never take a vehicle to the shop again, where your vehicle is capable of predicting and scheduling its own service needs, and a first-class service provider shows up to deliver the services needed."

NuBrakes said it has raised $12 million in funding so far and generates an eight-figure annualized revenue.

The Series A investment involves existing investors including Contrary Capital, Bling Capital Fund L.P. and Automotive Ventures Inc. Mike Ghaffary, general partner at Canvas Ventures and former CEO of Eat24 and vice president at Yelp, and Ben Ling, general partner at Bling Capital, will join NuBrakes' board of directors, the company said.