YC -backed garage is $ 13.5 million to help firefighters buy equipment

Firefighter 15 years ago, Martin Hunt, 26, has known the pain of small societies that contain narrow budgets to buy fire equipment.

One day in 2023, he found himself talking to one of his firefighters who asked if Hunt knew better.

“When I could not find anything, it became clear that a simple market in the country is needed for expensive equipment, difficult to determine like Firetrucks,” Hunt told Techcrunch. “After a few months, I left my job without a product or financing to build the solution.”

Cooperation with the college friend Alaz SenGul and launched GarageIt is a market that sells specialized equipment that is usually used in local governments and public safety. It is automated most of what was a manual process, such as evaluation, shipping quotes, and payment solutions.

“Many of our customers are civil service employees, firefighters, fleet managers and public work directors who do not have the administrative reluctance to deal with endless paperwork and logistical coordination,” said Hunt, the company’s CEO. SENGUL as CTO.

The company announced on Wednesday the A 13.5 million dollar series led by Infinity Ventures.

At the present time, Hunt said, the firefighting departments depend on the auction places online such as Govedeals or Facebook, or even classified newspapers, to find equipment if they are looking to buy pre -owned equipment.

At the same time, cities are trying to sell old equipment to raise money to get new supplies. Hunt said that many societies cannot sell at the country level, because the sale of a truck to the buyer is a thousand miles away from the logistical point often.

GARAGE product platform works in the country like this: sellers use the AI tool in Garage to assess their equipment. After that, the product is listed, and either the coordination of an auction or “buy now”. Seller buyers ’message, and request immediate quotes for things like warranty and shipping. After completing an agreement, Garage deals with the back interface and uses artificial intelligence to help coordinate delivery.

Hunt added: “With transactions of this size, often more than $ 100,000, security is a source of great concern, especially with the number of fraudsters who are waiting for platforms such as Facebook Marketplace,” Hunt added.

He described the process of collecting donations as a “fossil”, and said that he and SenGul met their main investors after their participation in the Winter 24 group in YC. The founders collected a seed tour of $ 4.5 million by the capital, and then it was introduced to the Infinity Ventures.

Among the others in the tour of Benchstrength, Wayfinder Ventures and FJ Labs. The company raised $ 18 million so far.

The new capital will be used to expand the team and the market. Hunt said that the product is currently used in all fifty states, and naming cities like Berlington, Vermont, South Charleston, West Virginia, as clients.

“We hope to improve the improvement of reasonable and musical equipment for public safety in the areas you need more, while allowing money to go further and stay in the hands of those who serve our local societies,” Hunt said.

This story has been updated to reflect the Perlington location.