Electric vehicle retail startup Ever has raised $31 million in a Series A funding round led by venture firm Eclipse, as it seeks to scale a digital marketplace designed specifically for buying and selling used EVs.
The round included participation from Ibex Investors, Lifeline Ventures and JIMCO, the investment arm of Saudi Arabia’s Jameel family. The company describes itself as an “AI-native, full-stack auto retail business” and says it already serves thousands of customers through a hybrid online and physical sales model.
Investors argue that conventional attempts to modernize auto retail with standalone artificial intelligence tools fall short of transforming the overall experience. “These bolt-on AI tools are band-aids,” Eclipse partner Jiten Behl said, comparing them to early electric vehicles built on platforms originally designed for combustion engines.
Founded in 2022, Ever aims to streamline the complex steps involved in vehicle transactions, from pricing and appraisal to paperwork and inventory management. Co-founder and Chief Executive Lasse-Mathias Nyberg said traditional sales processes can involve “hundreds or thousands of different actions,” creating friction for both buyers and sellers.
The company’s core technology acts as an orchestration layer that coordinates these workflows into a single system. Nyberg said the approach improves efficiency and could allow the company to offer lower prices by reducing operational costs.
Ever operates both an online marketplace and physical locations, reflecting continued demand for in-person vehicle inspection and test drives — particularly among customers new to electric vehicles.
Early user feedback has been mixed, with some customers praising the simplified buying process and others reporting difficulties contacting the company during its early rollout phase. Nyberg said those issues stemmed from the startup’s initial stealth operations and that the system is being refined as the business scales.
The broader U.S. EV market has shown signs of slower growth, a potential challenge for a retailer focused exclusively on electric vehicles. Nyberg said the company has not ruled out selling combustion-engine cars in the future but intends to remain EV-focused for now due to the lack of specialized retailers in the segment.
Behl, a former executive at Rivian, said he remains optimistic about long-term electrification trends and believes improved customer experience will drive adoption. “Customers are going to continue to gravitate towards better experience when it comes to buying cars,” he said, adding that digital platforms that remove friction from transactions are likely to gain market share.
