A Birmingham startup is looking to transform the car industry with the help of the ‘four Ps’ of entrepreneurship.
Founded by former Porsche MD Geoff Turral and automotive entrepreneur Paul Jewell, CarCloud is a digital platform revolutionising the way consumers manage their cars.
It hit the milestone of £1 million total funding raised this summer via follow-on funding from angel investors, having raised almost £700,000 via crowdfunding platform Seedrs last year.
“You need to live the startup founder’s 4 Ps – Passion, Persistence, Perspective and a healthy dose of Paranoia!” laughs Turral when asked for advice on growing a business.
The smartphone, tablet and desktop app has attracted 36,000 active users – with 44,000 cars registered – in just six months. It says this equates to more than £500m worth of vehicles under digital management.
“We believe [angel investment and crowdfunding] is the perfect combination for CarCloud,” adds Turral.
“Angel funding gives you access to a broad range of people who have been there, done it and carry the scars. Their guidance and advice is impossible to put a price on, but has been absolutely key to our rapid development.
“Crowdfunding develops that base of engaged evangelists and early adopters, who are talking about CarCloud in their communities and providing us with invaluable feedback about how they use the platform, what they would like to see in the future, and the increasing challenges of cost-effective car ownership.”
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.
Turral read engineering at Loughborough University before holding a broad mix of commercial roles at Vauxhall and Toyota. He went on to join Porsche GB as marketing director before promotion to the CEO position.
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.
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.
“We’ve built the business from the ground up to a team of 20, with plans to further expand – by possibly half again – over the next 12 months,” says Turral of a business which operates a four-day week model.
“We’ve calculated our user targets based on our initial pilot launch, understanding actual performance for user growth and acquisition cost. We’re currently tracking well ahead of plan.”
CarCloud app is available to download through the App Store and Google Play.