Caura, a London, UK-based vehicle management platform, raised $4.2m in seed funding.
The round was led by TwinFocus Capital Partners, with participation from InMotion Ventures (the CVC arm of Jaguar Land Rover), Road Ventures, Pareto Holdings and Quiet Capital, as well as Jon Oringer, founder of Shutterstock, Antony Sheriff, former CEO of McLaren Automotive, and Rob Wilmot, serial entrepreneur, investor, and advisor to the UK Government, and unnamed Apple and Google executives.
The company intends to use the funds to expand its products, including a new B2B offering for car manufacturers.
Led by Dr Sai Lakshmi, CEO and founder, the former Apple exec who also founded Echo, Caura allows users to input their vehicle’s registration number to automatically set up payments for services such as city congestion charges, tolls, tax, MOT and insurance.
The app, which launched in 2020, is currently available on iOS, where it is used by tens of thousands of car owners across the UK. Existing products already available are:
- Caura Protect – Caura’s FCA-authorised insurance proposition allows drivers to manage their insurance cover, right from the app. So far the business has signed up eight insurance partners including Aviva, Ageas, ERS, LV=, Markerstudy, Premier, Southern Rock and Sabre giving the business an extremely wide underwriting footprint taking InsurTech into the mainstream.
- Caura Drive – Caura Drive originally enabled users to pay for London’s Congestion Charge, ULEZ Charge and Dartford Crossing and the business recently added the ability to pay for Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone. In addition the platform allows drivers to get reminders for road tax (which can be paid from within the platform) and MOT.
New products set to launch in 2021 include:
- Native “vehicle companion apps”, embedding Caura’s platform into vehicle infotainment systems alongside maps, communications, and entertainment, enabling car owners to manage all aspects of car-related payments and administration directly while onboard
- Android and web apps that enable drivers to manage every aspect of their car admin and payments from all major platforms
- Continuous development of features and functionality to manage parking, tolls, congestion charges, MOT, and insurance, including now serving Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone (CAZ)
- Plans for the future include re-introducing payments for parking and offering electric charging
FinSMEs
21/06/2021