Lloyds Parks $4.9M in Driving-Related App Caura

Lloyds Banking Group has invested $4.9 million in “all-in-one” driving app Caura.

The British firm announced the investment — its third in a FinTech company — in a news release Thursday (Jan. 26), saying it would allow U.K.-based Caura to develop new products.

Caura, the release says “serves the 30 million motorists in the UK today who currently find themselves using between 8-10 apps and websites to manage their vehicles. Forgetting to pay the ever-growing list of charges and payments is costing drivers billions of pounds in unnecessary fines every year.”

The company says its app saves drivers time and money by keeping them up to date on payments for car insurance, vehicle taxes, tolls and city charges.

“Our next step is to apply our technology to overhauling the car insurance and maintenance processes which have remained antiquated and resistant to change,” Caura CEO and Co-founder Sai Lakshmi said in the release.

The funding comes amid increased interest among consumers in super apps, all-in-one mobile applications that let users perform various tasks within the app instead of using multiple separate apps.

“Super apps often have a broad scope and can include features such as social networking, eCommerce, banking, transportation payments and more,” PYMNTS wrote recently.

“They are designed to be convenient and efficient, providing users with a one-stop solution for many of their daily needs. Because of their broad service scope, these apps often have large user bases.”

These platforms are popular in Asia, where apps such as China’s WeChat and Gojek in Indonesia are poised to expand into new markets.

But in spite of the Western world’s more siloed approach to digital platforms, PYMNTS research shows that 96 million consumers in the U.S., the U.K., Australia and Germany said they were “highly interested” in a super app that could bring digital infrastructure support to their day-to-day activities.

“Moreover, 81 million of the consumers who want to use a super app are millennials, bridge millennials and Generation Z consumers — the very same generations who conduct the most life activities online,” PYMNTS wrote last year in “Super Apps for the Super Connected,” a study done in collaboration with PayPal.