Interview: AutoSmart is digitalising the automotive after-sales industry one car at a time

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Naseef Umar, CEO and co-founder of AutoSmart, a digital platform for the automotive after-sales sector speaks to Gulf Business about the industry, the platform’s evolution and his firm’s expansion plans.

Q. What inspired you to start AutoSmart?

A. AutoSmart was born out of recognising several pain points in the car after-sales industry. Despite the high level of technological components and ongoing research and development in the automotive sector, the after-sales industry was still heavily reliant on paper-based and manual processes. That’s when we had the idea to develop a field evaluation tool, which became our first application. We used to conduct audits by visiting various facilities to ensure they meet the technical requirements and processes, including customer experience SOPs and government regulations.

The procedure involved using paper, capturing images, and then uploading everything to an Excel sheet, which was time-consuming and inefficient.

We needed a way to digitise this process and provide real-time information to facility management. So, our first application was developed to address this issue and was later adopted by our customers. Most brands in this sector are still not fully digital, so there’s a lot of room for growth. We have three other products too: a Learning Management System, an idea collaboration application and a KPI management system. In the Middle East and Africa, we now work with brands such as Toyota, Lexus, Kia, Mitsubishi, and MG.

Q. What has your journey been like – from inception to date?

A. We officially established our company in Dubai five months ago, but our journey began back in 2019. Our recent move to Dubai’s mainland reflects our growing presence and ambitions.

Our journey as a start-up has been quite challenging yet gratifying. We started by launching our first product in Saudi Arabia and then expanded into Bahrain and UAE. We cover, as of date, over 14 countries in the Middle East and Africa. From our humble beginnings as an engineering team, we’ve come a long way.

We’ve consistently been bootstrapped, we never sought external funding. We maintained a lean strategy from the very beginning, expanding it forward gradually.

Q. How has the automotive after-sales industry responded to your platform?

A. The response to our application has been quite positive. Our success can be attributed to both our dedicated team and customers, who’ve shared their own pain points and needs with us. Our focus has been on creating user-friendly systems tailored to the automotive industry. Traditional software solutions are only suitable for some users due to complex interfaces.

Our core value is “easy to use,” and we’ve made sure our systems live up to that. For instance, our Training Management System is designed keeping in mind the limitations of the automotive service sector, where the users are often technicians, service advisors, drivers, and others. Implementing digital transformation with traditional software can take months and require significant financial resources, but our systems are designed to be quick to set up and efficient.

We’ve recently expanded our coverage to the Middle East and Africa and are in discussions with other companies on the European and Asian continents. Despite these achievements, we haven’t had a strong presence because of our limited resources and manpower.

Q. How would you describe your entrepreneurial journey?

A. My entrepreneurial journey began while I was working in Saudi Arabia. Once the AutoSmart idea was born, I decided to move from Saudi Arabia to Germany for my master’s degree while working on the idea simultaneously.

Over time, the focus shifted from engineering to making our products user-friendly and efficient. While it’s been a challenging journey, I’m excited about where we’re headed.

We’ve been bootstrapped because we want to build a sustainable business without the burden of liabilities. While funding is a model, and has been celebrated all around, our approach is more focused on achieving substantial revenue and building a business that will stand the test of time.

Q. What are your expansion plans?

A. We’re planning to expand our product offerings to other industries such as food and beverages, retail, oil and gas, marine, construction and a few others. We believe that our solutions are highly scalable. Currently, we’re focusing on the automotive industry since we understand their language and needs. Our expansion plan includes reaching out to other regions—Europe, the US and Asia. We aim to make the best products that can be used across multiple industries.

We’re still in the early phases of our expansion plan and are taking things one step at a time.

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