Caura, an all-in-one motoring app from the UK that aims to take away the hassle of car ownership, has recently raised £4 million from Lloyds Banking Group.
As a result of the investment from the Thought Machine backer, Caura will be able to fund its new and existing products and services for consumers and businesses. These will also include mobile parking and vehicle maintenance for iOS and Android.
How does it work?
With Caura app for iOS and Android, one can make payments on time-related to driving and avoid unnecessary fines. The app focuses on 30 million motorists in the UK as users and helps them manage their vehicles operating between 8-10 apps and websites.
Further, to keep drivers compliant, Caura sends relevant information and timely reminders to simplify car admin. Additionally, the app lets drivers manage their car insurance, MOT, vehicle tax, tolls and city charges as well.
Launched in 2020 as an iOS app by Dr Sai Lakshmi, Caura aims to simplify vehicle ownership.
Kirsty Rutter, FinTech Investment Director at Lloyds Banking Group, said: “This significant investment represents another important step forward in our plans to work closely with fintechs and technology partners to bring together data-driven insight and technologies to help our customers.
Caura’s experienced management team have a relentless focus on customers, and we are excited to work with them to support the development and growth of this groundbreaking simple-to-use app.”
Dr Sai Lakshmi, CEO and Founder of Caura, said: “Lloyds Banking Group’s investment will help accelerate our plans to improve Caura for our consumer customers and our industry partners. As part of our mission to take the pain out of driving, we have already simplified payments for tolls, city charges and vehicle excise duty. Our next step is to apply our technology to overhaul the car insurance and maintenance processes, which have remained antiquated and resistant to change.
Our future plans for Caura include developing embedded financial services such as motor loans and insurance, white-labelled payment solutions for automotive partners and self-service SaaS solutions to SME customers.”
Focus on embedded finance
This latest investment is part of Lloyds Banking Group’s public commitment to the Fintech Delivery Pledge – an industry-wide initiative designed to enhance the global position of UK financial services by making partnerships between fintechs and large financial institutions smooth and productive.
The investment in Caura is Lloyds Banking Group’s first investment of 2023, following a successful round of investments in 2022. These investments are headed up by the Group’s recently formed Fintech Investment team, which focuses on identifying and exploring opportunities for investment into fintech at Seed to Series B.
Dr Sai Lakshmi, CEO & Founder of Caura, said: “Lloyds Banking Group and their proactive approach to innovation is incredibly exciting, and the cross-pollination of ideas between our respective teams will allow us to deliver an innovative suite of products and services that the market has not seen before to customers ranging from drivers through to vehicle manufacturers.”
