Caura’s on a mission to fix a broken system.  

Because the way we manage our cars in the UK is baffling. With fiddly forms, slow websites and hidden fees, it’s impossible to go anywhere without sorting something car. And it just keeps getting more complicated. Clean Air and Ultra Low Emission Zones are popping up everywhere (rightly so) and there’s more city charges, tolls and taxes than ever before. 

As the list of car admin gets longer, so do our general to-do lists. People have busy lives that keep getting busier. There’s no time left to track pesky car payments, confusing city charges and forgettable MOT dates. That’s if you even know what you need to keep track of in the first place.

It’s the vulnerable who get caught out the most. Low emission zones target drivers with older, less eco-friendly cars – so ultimately the people who can’t afford the shinier models are penalised. 

The system’s unfair and we’ve had enough. Holding a ticket in one hand and a fine in the other, we decided to take car admin into our own hands. It was time we stood up to a process that’s fleeced us one too many times. We set out on a mission to change how people run their cars – for good. 

Using the latest tech, we created a super-fast platform that helps you sort everything car, all at the same time. From road tax to tolls to car insurance, Caura’s an easy-to-use app that puts all car admin in the palm of your hand. Revolutionary. 

Download the app and enter your registration number to bring up your vehicle details. Jump in the car, plan your route and pay for everything from ULEZ and Clean Air Zones to toll roads and crossings, in seconds. We’ll also help you pay for things you might have forgotten like the new Heathrow Drop Off charge. The app uses Google or Apple Pay so you can sort it in a few taps. Caura also sends you reminders to reschedule your MOT and road tax, so you’ll never forget again. Then to insurance. We’ve curated the UK’s very best, trusted insurers to offer you a quote and let you pay in under a minute. 

So with all these exciting features, we’ve decided to give Caura a fresh new look and feel. 

Motorists who drove into Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone (CAZ) were fined at least £7m in July alone. The charge to drive in the zone is £8 per day, and the penalty for not paying is a hefty £120 per offence (£60 if paid within 6 days). Nearly 113,000 drivers fell foul to this penalty in the first month of the zone rollout, leading some people to question the effectiveness and fairness of the CAZ.

These zones are becoming more common, with rollouts planned in Manchester and Bristol by next year, and London’s ULEZ expanding significantly in October. We wanted to take a closer look at how these zones are impacting drivers, as well as those who live within these city zones.

As Clean Air Zones become the norm, the debate around their effectiveness and fairness grows. It's not difficult to understand why, given that 112,772 penalty charge notices were issued to Birmingham drivers in July alone. With each fine generating up to £120 in revenue for Birmingham City Council, there are questions being asked as to whether this is as a stealth tax on those unable to afford newer, cleaner vehicles.

Motorists in Birmingham fined £7m in July...

Caura makes new Birmingham Clean Air Zone simple with payments in less than 5 seconds:

Free to download, Caura enables drivers to manage Clean Air Zone (CAZ) payments in addition to road tax, parking, tolls, London’s CC/ULEZ and even vehicle Insurance all through one app

Caura is designed by motorists for motorists to simplify car ownership and prevent PCNs (Penalty Charge Notices) and aims to save Birmingham motorists thousands in fines when the new charging system goes live on 1st June

UK motorists accumulate a whopping £2bn in fines annually which Caura aims to put right

Caura CEO, Sai Lakshmi available for interview on request to press@caura.com to talk about drivers’ plight against complex vehicle admin and payments infrastructure

Pay the Birmingham CAZ charge in seconds on Caura

Funding from TwinFocus Capital Partners, InMotion Ventures, Road Ventures, Pareto Holdings and Quiet Capital, and, alongside notable angels, sets up vehicle management startup to expand product offerings and grow team

21 June 2021 - Caura - a vehicle management platform which eliminates the avoidable hassle, stress, and expenses associated with driving in the UK, has raised $4.2 million to expand its products, including a new B2B offering for car manufacturers.

The funding 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. Notable angels also joined, including Jon Oringer, founder of Shutterstock, Antony Sheriff, former CEO of McLaren Automotive, and Rob Wilmot, serial entrepreneur, investor, and advisor to the UK Government. Unnamed Apple and Google executives also joined the round.

Founded by Dr Sai Lakshmi, the former Apple exec who also founded Echo, Caura allows users to simply 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 and has an App Store rating of 4.8/5.

On 25th October 2021, London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) expands to become 18x larger. The new 140sq mile zone grows outwards from central London, to cover everything within the North & South circular roads. According to TfL this will mean 565,000 cars in London will be liable for the daily £12.50 charge. [1] To put that in perspective, if each of the 565,000 cars drove within the expanded zone every day of the year, TfL would generate a staggering £2.5 billion in revenue. In other words, more than the entirety of their current income combined. [2]

With the expansion representing the largest change to London’s road network since the introduction of the Congestion Charge in 2003, we decided to take to the streets to hear from people who will be most affected and try and get a better understanding of the sentiment towards the expansion. What quickly became apparent was, despite a large advertising campaign by TfL, there is still a lot of confusion, unawareness and in some cases anger towards the change.

We first headed to an out-of-town shopping centre in East London, located a couple of miles within the expanded zone. With a full car park, it didn’t take us long to find motorists driving vehicles that will be affected.
We spoke to Florida (pictured below) about how the ULEZ expansion and £12.50 charge would be affecting her.

 “I won’t be coming here anymore, I can’t change my car now, because it’s a lot of money.”

We also asked her if she knows how to pay the new charge: “no, I know absolutely nothing…” After explaining it can be paid with two taps on Caura, Florida appreciates the functionality but still concludes the financial burden of the charge:“it’s just putting people down.”

Driver stories and your up-to-date guide on running your car, written by Caura’s experts. Keep up to speed with charge changes, new zones, insurance tips and much more. 

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