The Custodian platform relieves users of the traditional pain points of classic and specialist car ownership such as tracking costs, filing invoices, and remembering key dates such as insurance and MOT renewals, letting owners focus on enjoying their car instead.
Free to download from the Custodian website, and already in use by more than 2,000 car owners following a soft launch in August 2021, Custodian features a suite of ownership tools designed to help users to keep track of the administration surrounding car ownership, allowing users to:
- Organise and track the maintenance aspects of car ownership including recording, categorising, and accounting for servicing, maintenance, and restoration work
- Set up reminders for key dates such as MOT, tax and insurance renewals
- Build a digital history file for a vehicle, which will be fully sharable for prospective buyers and ultimately transferable to a new owner in the event of a sale
The features and functionality of the app have been developed in the open, with real-time feedback from the motoring community allowing the developers to focus on producing the tools requested by its users. In taking a collaborative approach, Custodian will continue to add and develop new tools continuously, in response to the wishes of its users and fellow enthusiasts.
Charles Clegg, Custodian co-founder and CEO commented "Loving your car is easy, but car ownership isn't. Custodian was founded to remove a lot of the traditional annoyances of car ownership by applying fresh-thinking and cutting-edge technology to the age-old problems of admin and looking after specialist cars. Ultimately, we want to free up owners to focus less on these issues and instead, spend more time experiencing the joy of motoring."
Built using advanced Graph Database technology, the platform allows for highly complex and interconnected information to be stored securely and accessed instantaneously by users. The accumulated data, images and documents for their vehicles are presented via a simple to use dashboard. Invoices can be uploaded, sorted, and tracked in seconds, maintenance histories can be logged and inspected, and total cost of ownership can be monitored.
All data entered into the platform is secure, and Custodian does not sell any of this information to third parties or allow third party advertisements within the platform. Users have the ability to share their vehicles and any details they wish with other users within the Custodian community, but this is strictly an opt-in function, and privacy remains the default setting.
Jeremy Hindle, co-founder and CTO/CPO said, "As the classic and specialist car world begins to adopt technology, it was important to us from the outset to ensure that Custodian is a secure environment in which users can feel their data is stored safely and their privacy will be respected. As vehicles are often treasured assets, we will never sell or distribute any information stored within the App without a user's consent. Unlike some other available apps, Custodian is anti-data sharing by default, it is very much an app built to allow for mutual trust to be built within the community."
As interesting as the app itself are the founders behind it. Created by a team of young, passionate tech entrepreneurs, the founders include ex-Goldman Sachs and BofA Merrill Lynch investment bankers, and a Forbes 30 under 30 and Y-Combinator alumni. The founders have come together to apply their combined expertise and automotive enthusiasm to simplifying the ownership experience for car enthusiasts, alongside the creation of an online community.
As part of the wider efforts for the global car enthusiast community, Custodian publishes the free Apex newsletter and podcast. A weekly conversation with automotive titans and the tastemakers, the Apex podcast explores varied and unique perspectives on car culture. Featuring highly curated content involving some of the greatest names in the classic and collectable car community, the Apex hosts conversations with those who have made car culture what it is today.
Download the App @Custodian