Alastair Shephard

Content Writer

Alastair Shephard | Author

Bumper, the digital payment platform for vehicle repairs, services, accessories and add-ons, has announced the appointment of James Hind as a non-executive director.

 brings a wealth of digital automotive experience to the business as it prepares to launch across Europe.

“We’re incredibly excited to welcome James Hind as a non-executive director. His extensive experience of successfully scaling a disruptive automotive tech business in the UK, Spain and Germany will be invaluable to us,” said James Jackson, CEO and co-founder, Bumper.

“As an entrepreneur, James is highly regarded across the automotive sector, having grown carwow from a small start-up to an international business with over 400 employees and £5bn of car sales through it in 2021 alone, so we’re thrilled to have him on board,” he said.

Speaking about his appointment, Hind said: “Car repair and servicing bills are often a big financial burden for many consumers and Bumper has created a great way to spread the cost of that, helping avoid the need to take on expensive loans. Its platform is great for dealers too, providing them with a full suite of digital payment options for customers to fund workshop and add-on bills, which has been a game-changer and that shows with the huge adoption they’ve got.

“I’ll be supporting the management team as they grow its operations and offerings in the UK and across Europe. I’ve followed Bumper’s rapid rise with keen interest and look forward to working with the business to assist the next phase of its growth,” he said.

Hind joins Bumper following the recent expansion of its executive team with four new appointments: Francisca Gutierrez (chief product officer), Paul Edgecombe (chief compliance officer), Matt Williams (chief growth officer) and Leah Ellis (interim chief people officer).

Last month, Bumper was named by the Financial Times as one of the fastest-growing FinTechs in its FT1000 rankings of Europe’s fastest-growing companies.

Bumper appoints carwow’s James Hind as non-executive director

In total, the company has raised more than £950,000 from a number of private investors. The funding will be used to enhance the machine learning capabilities used to process customer applications quickly yet responsibly.

It comes after the business enjoyed 1,000 per cent year-on-year revenue growth in 2016 as the total amount of repairs, servicing and accessories funded through Bumper exceeded £6 million, a 100% increase over the last six months. This followed an increase of more than 150% in its customer base, with the number of UK dealerships offering Bumper rising from 300 to 850 over the last 12 months.

The popularity of Bumper’s solution has led to it being rolled out across franchised dealerships belonging to some of the world’s biggest vehicle brands such as Jaguar Land Rover, Peugeot Citroën, Ford and Vauxhall. Dealerships have found their customers have been able to go ahead with work using Bumper that they otherwise couldn’t have afforded, allowing them to ensure their vehicles are safe and operational, while managing the cost.

The payment method is funded exclusively by dealers, who pay a small transaction fee on any sales made through Bumper, meaning the customer gets flexibility with no extra or hidden costs. It is the only funding solution available that focuses solely on the repairs and service market.

James Jackson, co-founder and CEO of Bumper, said: “It is clear there is great demand for more options when it comes to covering the cost of maintaining our vehicles, which is all too often an expensive and stressful experience. Bumper provides greater flexibility and transparency to enable motorists to stay on the road without the hassle of high, and often unplanned for, one-off bills."

“Dealerships have been offering finance packages on vehicle sales for many years, and they are beginning to recognise the importance of adopting interest-free payment methods within their service divisions."

“This investment will enable us to continue our rapid growth by growing our technology team to enable us to further improve the customer experience, adding more features and even greater flexibility."

Bumper secures major investment boost

Now in it’s 19th year, the FStech awards celebrate innovative and outstanding technologies in the UK and EMEA financial services sector.

Bumper is pleased to announce that we have been shortlisted for the Best Use of Social Networks or Gamification category. The nomination is a result of the implementation of our service advisor dashboard; an area for users in which they can earn points and prizes for helping customers to pay their repair bills.

We are competing against two other start-ups. Invstr, an app for aspiring investors and Yu Life a mindfulness and wellbeing app. Also in the running, is investment bank JP. Morgan.

Bumper CEO, James Jackson, said, “it’s an honour to be shortlisted at the FStech award and is testament to the team’s hard work and dedication in continuing to improve our product’s user experience”.

The awards ceremony will be held at London’s Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square on 21st March and hosted by Kerry Godliman, comedian and star of Ricky Gervais’ sitcom Derek.

Bumper Shortlisted for Best Use of Gamification at FStech Awards

Trustpilot, an independent review portal with over 56 million reviews, allows customers to share their honest experiences with companies by leaving a small comment and a 1-5 star rating.

Since March 2018 we have been asking customers to leave us feedback on using Bumper to pay for service bills and the results have been extremely positive. We are currently the 20th best rated company in the non-bank finance category and hold a Trust-score of 4.9 out of 5.

Trust-scores are based not only on how many stars we have been awarded by customers but the age of reviews, with a greater emphasis on the newest. This ensures we are rated on the standard of service we currently provide.

With 1,102 reviews, there are a lot of positive comments to be proud of. Here are a few of our favourites:

“Found this service very helpful, when I was faced with a big repair bill for my car. You had a choice of 3 months payments, no deposit or 5 months with a deposit, all interest free and you could choose a date of your choice to repay them in instalments. It was very easy to set up and gave me peace of mind. Would definitely recommend this company.”

- Stephanie, after her visit to Motorline Hyundai Canterbury

“Interest free payment option for car repairs. I forgot my card when visiting the dealership and I set the payment on my payday. You don't feel the pressure you normally have around your car service.”

- A customer who visited Go Vauxhall Wimbledon

“Had immediate response without lengthy discussions or reams of form filling. Been given this option, I was able to spread the cost of vehicle repairs interest free”

- Mrs Bird, after her visit to Bristol Street Hyundai Mansfield

Thank you to our customers who have taken the time to leave us a review over the last year!

1000 Happy Customers: Surpassing One Thousand Reviews on Trustpilot

Held at London’s Marriott hotel in Grosvenor square the awards recognise excellence and innovation in the field of information technology within the UK and EMEA financial services sector.

The award is in recognition of Bumper's innovative suite of dealership reports and dashboards, using the latest gamification and machine learning techniques.

The evening was hosted by comedian Kerry Godliman and saw Bumper beat investment giant J.P. Morgan.

Other winners included Barclays for Best Use of Mobile, Allied Irish Bank for Integration Project of the Year and HSBC for Risk Management Software of the Year.

CEO, James Jackson, said, “I am proud of the work we have done towards this award. The win demonstrates the teams hard work towards improving the experience for our users”.

Bumper Win at the FStech Awards 2019

We are pleased to announce that we won Alternative Lender of the Year in the New Lender category at Credit Strategy’s Credit Awards 2019!

This year’s awards celebrated the 20th year the event has been held. The evening was hosted by comedian Jimmy Carr at Grosvenor House Hotel, London on the 16th May and saw winners such as Capita, Vodafone, Barclays and HSBC walk away with awards.

The winners were selected by a panel of judges who look to reward companies for their “hard work, innovative outlook and industry-shaping solutions”. Amongst the panel were specialists in the credit industry from Santander, Lloyds and Metro bank.

The award recognizes the growing popularity of the pay monthly option within the aftersales industry and how Bumper is leading the way with an exceptional product and service for OEM-franchises; independent garages and, ultimately, the customer.

James Jackson, CEO of Bumper stated, “A fantastic win for Bumper at an event as prestigious as the Credit Awards, particularly given how many great FinTech businesses there are in the UK right now. This award recognizes the work we do to empower car dealerships up and down the UK. We are proud to work with nearly 2,000 dealerships with the goal of becoming Europe’s largest aftersales finance provider over the next few years.”

This is Bumper’s second award this year and, hopefully, there are many more to come!

Credit Where Credit’s Due: A Win For ASF At The Credit Awards 2019

We are pleased to have been named as a finalist at Credit Strategy’s Lending Awards 2019 in the Alternative Consumer Lender of the Year category.

What could be our third win of the year, the Lending awards will see 

 compete against other alternative lenders such as Oakbrook Finance and Savvy.co.uk.

Judges picked the finalists with the most innovative business models and product range. Areas such as customer satisfaction, the volume of credit provided to borrowers, organisational growth and financial success were also considered when picking the shortlist.

The winner will be announced on the 12th November at the Hilton in Bankside, London.

Congratulations to all the finalists this year.

Bumper Named Finalist At Lending Awards 2019

Team Bumper were at Automotive Management Live 2019 Thursday 7th November discussing our latest ecommerce plug-ins.

 AM Live allows suppliers to the automotive industry to share industry best practice and discuss how to prepare for the future of motor retail.

The main objective for the team this year was to showcase our new ecommerce plug-ins allowing customers to apply for interest free finance at home when sent an invoice break-down by dealerships signed up to the service.

This will give consumers greater access to finance and dealerships and a more connected experience.

Bumper Exhibit New Ecommerce Plug-ins at AM Live 2019

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