Lebanese automotive marketplace Seez have received $1.8 million in seed funding from B&Y, Phoenician Funds, and Wamda Capital.

Seez was founded two years ago by Andrew and Tarek Kabrit. The company aims to create a new type of search engine allowing users to search for cars using image recognition for vehicles they spot on the street, contextual location based notifications, and an AI chatbot that acts like a personal car buying concierge.

This is the startup’s first official seed round. Tarek Kabrit said that they had already raised some money from three angel investors.

“We will be pushing hard on AI and chatbots in our app. The funding will go towards enhancing those capabilities by expanding the team in Beirut and Dubai, in addition to develop our marketing scheme,” Kabrit said.

According to him, Seez aims to use technology (image recognition, AI, and chatbots) to fully transform the car search process. “We want to fully automate the car search/buying process so that buyers can find the best car they want, contact all sellers, and negotiate the price all with one click.”