After successfully scaling and selling his mobile auto repair startup RepairSmith to AutoNation, serial entrepreneur Joel Milne turned his attention to a persistent and costly challenge plaguing the automotive retail world getting inspiration from sorm automobile firms like UP.Labs and Porsche: broken communication across the industry’s fragmented software systems.
Auto dealerships and mechanic shops rely on a chaotic mix of over 40 different software tools—from dealer management systems and CRM platforms to digital retailing, inventory, and service software. Yet, there’s no common language to connect them all. That disconnect slows everything down, makes collaboration expensive, and complicates vital workflows like service coordination, parts ordering, and customer referrals.
Drawing inspiration from fintech platform Plaid, which streamlined how banks and financial apps communicate, Milne is now building the equivalent solution for auto retail. His new startup, AutoUnify, offers a universal API platform designed to let dealerships, service shops, software vendors, and manufacturers talk to each other in real time.
“Working with dealerships and trying to get parts or refer customers was an integration nightmare,” Milne said. “It was fragmented, time-consuming, and extremely costly to build connections with each individual system.”
From Quiet Pilot to Full Launch
After nine months operating in stealth, Santa Monica-based AutoUnify is now opening up its sales pipeline following a successful pilot phase with several dealerships in 2024. The company recently raised $5 million in seed funding, led by UP.Partners, and plans to grow its headcount from 9 to 20 employees by the end of the year. The focus moving forward, Milne says, is squarely on scaling the platform and expanding sales efforts.
AutoUnify is the fourth startup to emerge from a groundbreaking collaboration between UP.Labs and Porsche. Unlike traditional venture firms or corporate accelerators, UP.Labs functions as a venture lab, partnering with industry giants to identify deep-rooted operational problems—and then build startups to solve them not just for the sponsor company, but for the entire industry.
Cracking the Code on Automotive Infrastructure
As part of its unique model, UP.Labs doesn’t just develop niche solutions for Porsche. Its goal is to create category-defining companies that address sector-wide problems. AutoUnify fits that bill. It’s tackling what UP.Labs CEO John Kuolt describes as one of the “most critical and most difficult” issues in automotive tech today.
“It’s exactly the kind of breakthrough we build for,” Kuolt said. “A company that not only tackles a technical challenge, but fundamentally reshapes how an entire industry operates.”
UP.Labs has been working with Porsche since 2022 and has already launched other industry-disrupting startups like:
- Pull Systems, which helps EV manufacturers and suppliers manage performance across their supply chain.
- Sensigo, which uses AI to help service techs quickly diagnose problems in modern, software-defined vehicles.
AutoUnify now joins this portfolio with a bold mission: to standardize communication across automotive retail, reduce operational costs, and ultimately help dealers, vendors, and OEMs collaborate more efficiently.
With growing partnerships, fresh capital, and a deeply experienced founder at the helm, AutoUnify is on track to become the Plaid of automotive retail—and reshape how the entire industry connects.
