Caura, the app for U.K. car owners, begins offering insurance

Caura, the U.K. startup that wants to take the hassle out of car ownership, is launching car insurance — unveiling its insurtech ambitions.

Dubbed “Caura Protect,” the new insurance product claims to reduce the cost and time taken to insure a car, building on the app’s existing car management features.

Launched earlier this year by Sai Lakshmi, who previously co-founded medication management service Echo, Caura is a mobile app designed to manage all of the vehicle-related admin that car owners endure.

Drivers are on-boarded by entering their vehicle registration number and can manage parking, tolls, MOT, road tax, congestion charges, and now insurance — a “one-stop shop” app in a similar vein to Echo. The idea is that Caura minimises car ownership admin and helps to mitigate associated penalty fines.

Caura is FCA approved to undergo various insurance activities and enables drivers to compare insurers and manage their policy within the app. The startup also says it has redesigned the signup and verification process to significantly reduce the time needed to find the best insurance policy.

“Caura instantly verifies users against official sources like the DVLA, simplifying the experience, and reducing the risk of insurance fraud,” says the company.

The idea is to offer a much more user-friendly insurance search and buying process than is typical of price comparison websites that ask for a multiple page questionnaire to be filled out before sending you — the “prospect” — to the insurer to complete your purchase. Instead, Caura claims that users can research options, select a quote, pay, and be covered to drive in around a minute (if you navigate the app really fast, I’m assuming).

The insurance cover itself is provided by six of the leading U.K. insurers, including Aviva and Markerstudy. In early 2021, Caura users will be able to pay for insurance in monthly instalments.

Asked why no one seems to have made shopping around for car insurance quite so straightforward, Lakshmi tells TechCrunch: “Startups in insurtech have been so busy finding niches that they’ve forgotten to innovate for the mainstream consumer”.