Lloyds Banking Group has invested £4m into Caura, a motoring admin app that provides a centralised place for tasks including paying for tolls, city charges, vehicle excise duty, MOTs and vehicle tax.
It is Lloyd’s first fintech investment of the year and comes as part of the bank’s involvement with the Fintech Delivery Pledge, a joint initiative between HM Treasury and Tech Nation, which aims to connect stakeholders in the sector together.
Caura plans to use the additional capital to add new tools such as motor loans and insurance and white-label payment solutions for automotive partners.
“Our next step is to apply our technology to overhauling the car insurance and maintenance processes which have remained antiquated and resistant to change,” said Dr Sai Lakshmi, CEO and founder of Caura.
London-based Caura was founded in 2018 by ex-business development manager for Apple Sai Lakshmi. It has previously been backed by Jaguar Land Rover’s venture arm as part of a $4.2m funding round in 2021. Its angel investors include Antony Sheriff, the former CEO of McLaren Automotive, and Jon Oringer, the founder of stock image site Shutterstock.
“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,” said Kirsty Rutter, fintech investment director for Lloyds Banking Group.
