CarCloud aims to shake up car management with £1 million investment

A Birmingham startup is looking to transform the car industry after raising £1 million. CarCloud is a digital platform looking to change the way consumers manage their cars.

CarCloud enables users to programme vehicle reminders and store important documents in the cloud, reducing the risk of not having an MOT and eliminating unnecessary filing. The platform can also be used to check the value of vehicles, with 18,000 searches undertaken in June alone, renegotiate finance payments and search for the best available insurance premiums.

Founded by former Porsche MD Geoff Turral and automotive entrepreneur Paul Jewell, the smartphone, tablet and desktop app has attracted 36,000 active users – with 44,000 cars registered – in just six months.

It is predicted that the company’s user base will exceed 150,000 by the end of the year, with the platform shortly set to enter the business-to-business marketplace. It is aiming for 2.35m users – 1.9m retail and 450,000 B2B – by the end of 2026. User targets are based on the initial pilot launch, understanding actual performance for user growth and acquisition cost.

“Our customers have been telling us, as they come through the pandemic period, that they expect to use their cars less in the future but value them more,” Turral tells BusinessCloud. “Too often we hear that car owners feel like they’re being ‘processed’ according to the sector model’s needs, rather than anything approaching theirs.

“The huge opportunity is in understanding enhanced data – basically, how car and driver data develops over time. To do this effectively takes a mindset shift from the traditional well-trodden path of ‘owning the customer’ and ‘customer for life’ approaches. 

Jewell’s long experience in managing, founding and selling dealerships taught him that identifying the right finance for customers was a key enabler. The idea for CarCloud percolated in his mind before he launched the business with Turral in 2018.

CarCloud’s capacity to support users includes taking car industry data and sharing it in a way that is understandable and actionable. This includes insight into future monthly ownership costs, value forecasting and understanding the equity in a car as the key driver to enable drivers to update/upgrade. 

The team is also developing a ‘Powered by CarCloud’ platform for third-party media partners, to enable them to provide valuable content to their audiences.”

CarCloud app is available to download through the App Store and Google Play.