Pitz

Post-pitch story

Natalia Salcedo opened Season 16 with a pitch that sounded like it came from the pit lane: car repair as fast as an F1 pit stop. Pitz is a voice-AI operating system for auto repair shops. Mechanics describe a problem out loud, the system helps diagnose the vehicle, and a built-in parts marketplace finds and orders the parts — turning a days-long repair into something closer to a pit stop. Salcedo pitched a big vision: the automotive aftermarket is enormous, fragmented, and still runs on phone calls and paper. The investors liked the speed story and the marketplace angle, and Pitz came away with backing. Since the episode, Pitz has kept building on both sides of the product — the diagnostic AI and the parts marketplace — and has reportedly raised about $5 million in total, making it one of the stronger post-show fundraisers of the recent seasons. The company is still early, but the trajectory is upward: more shops on the platform, a growing parts network, and a founder who talks about the business with the same urgency she brought to the pitch. For a fan of the show, Pitz is a good reminder that the best pitches often take a familiar, unglamorous industry — auto repair — and attack it with genuinely new technology. Watch for Pitz to keep expanding its shop network and to push further into the parts-supply side of the market.