May 15, 2013—Irvine, Calif.-based uParts Inc. recently secured $2 million of Series-A financing to expand its electronic parts procurement services for the collision repair industry nationally.
The multi-million dollar financing was provided by venture capital firms GRP Partners and Fraser McCombs Capital, as well as “other influential individuals in the automotive industry,” uParts said.
“It is a testament to our business model that we are able to attract world-class investment firms such as GRP Partners, the largest venture capital firm in Southern California and Fraser McCombs Capital, one of the leading investment firms in the automotive industry,” said Alex Adegan, founder, president and CEO of uParts. “We are pleased to have such esteemed investors recognize our potential.”
Adegan said uParts is attempting to modernize the collision repair industry through a Web-based platform that integrates repair shop applications with inventory management systems of part suppliers. He said the online part procurement initiative is meant to improve repair facility profits by lowering costs, reducing labor and streamlining the entire procurement process.
“It is astounding that in the year 2013, the 20th anniversary of the World Wide Web, repair facilities are placing their part orders using 100-year-old technologies—the phone and fax machine,” Adegan said. “Can you imagine faxing a list of your destination cities to airlines, then waiting for them to call back with possible routes, pricing and availability? Our powerful and intuitive platform solves this problem by allowing all part orders to be placed with a single click.”
uParts is deploying its online parts procurement platform on a national scale. The company said it is in a strong position to capture a significant portion of the $15 billion collision repair parts industry.
“uParts is a great company with a unique service offering to the collision repair industry. Collision shops have been slow to embrace technology for parts procurement and typically use phone and fax calls to place their orders, which results in minimal transparency and higher costs,” said Steven Dietz, a partner at GRP Partners who also joined uParts’ board of directors. “uParts is solving this problem through technology that will transform the industry. We look forward to working with uParts and bringing our experience in technology and automotive to help drive long term value.”
