Alastair Shephard

Content Writer

Alastair Shephard | Author

We’re excited to announce that Best4 has been named our winner of Partner of the Month for April 2024!

Part of the Autoguard group, Best4 Warranty is a top-rated warranty provider, dedicated to providing drivers with peace of mind, helping prepare for the unexpected. Since 2022, Best4 has utilised Bumper’s pay-monthly option to offer their customers more payment flexibility with their products.

The Camberley-based team just had their best month ever, with more happy customers driving away with warranties split into manageable monthly payments than ever before. With fantastic reviews on Trustpilot, Best4 presents a stellar 4.9-star rating. 

The team have received extremely positive feedback with their customer service, with one customer sharing “Great customer service! Lara Norris was really helpful and couldn’t do more to help!” Another added, “Excellent professional service from Shaneil, very detailed and thorough.”

A previous Best4 customer who used Bumper through Best4 Warranty stated, “Took out a 3-year warranty for my Citroen and the finance was handled by Bumper. It was easy to set up, giving me peace of mind with my new car.”

We extend a huge congratulations to Callum and the entire Best4 team for an outstanding month!

Best4 awarded partner of the month

We're thrilled to have been awarded the Overall Judges' Award at the Northern Tech Awards 2024.

Held at Manchester Central and hosted by GP Bullhound, the awards celebrate the top 100 fastest-growing companies in Northern England, with categories such as Fastest Growing Company of the Year, the Innovation Award and the Entrepreneur Award. A Northern Stars category shines a spotlight on younger companies with potential for growth in tech.

The Overall Judges' Award recognises the company with the highest achievements for growth, innovation, global ambition, cultural excellence and leadership. 

GP Bullhound's ranking of fastest-growing companies comes at a remarkable time for Bumper, having recently closed a $50m Series B funding round. The funding will aid further growth of Bumper's automotive payment platform across Europe. 

Managing Director of GP Bullhound Javed Huq, said, “Congratulations to all the winners of the 2024 Northern Tech Awards. Their success is a testament to the remarkable determination and entrepreneurship, which have enabled their businesses to thrive in a challenging market landscape. 

"We are immensely proud of the dedication and innovation within the Northern tech ecosystem and believe it is important to celebrate these achievements at tonight’s awards. We are honoured to champion these leading tech businesses, and look forward to their continued growth and contribution to the UK economy.”

Over the course of the evening, a wide range of tech companies were recognised, from leading industry experts in AI to digital product development agencies. Amongst those recognised were xDesign, Opencast, Cassie, ProofID, IDHL Easyfundraising, Robiquity and Answer Digital. 

We'd like to say a big thank you GP Bullhound for recognising Bumper with this prestigious award and congratulations to all the other winners.

Bumper Wins Overall Judges' Award at Northern Tech Awards 2024

Bumper gana el premio del jurado en los Northern Tech Awards 2024

We’re pleased to announce we’ve raised a further £2 million in a Series B extension round, with Suzuki Global Ventures and Marubeni Ventures joining as investors.

With Suzuki’s strong European dealer network and Marubeni’s RRG Group, HPL Motors Group and Norton Way Motors in the UK, the new investors are strategically important for further accelerating Bumper’s scaled growth across the UK and Europe. 

Suzuki’s UK dealer operation recently ranked as the top-performing automotive brand in the Institute of Customer Service’s 2024 UK Customer Satisfaction Index. 

The latest investment follows last year’s £40 million Series B fundraise with Autotech Ventures, Shell Ventures, JLR’s InMotion Ventures and Porsche Ventures. Total investment in Bumper has now reached £55 million. 

The new investors are joining after a record year of growth for the business with Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) growing 100% year on year and customer numbers up 80% in the last 12 months. 

James Jackson, Bumper Co-Founder and CEO said, “With Suzuki Global Ventures and Marubeni Ventures joining our growing portfolio of major automotive investors, we can accelerate our ambitious plans to be the dominant payment platform for car dealers in the UK and across Europe.

“We’re delighted that Suzuki Global Ventures and Marubeni Ventures see the value of what we’ve already achieved and our future potential. Unexpected and unbudgeted car repair bills are a universal problem requiring flexible payment solutions that benefit customers and dealers. With our investors’ support, we’re now ideally placed to invest in new products and increase our dealer footprint.”

Kinji Saito, Director and Senior Managing Officer at Suzuki said, “Bumper’s unique AI technology enables real-time financing decisions, thereby making it easier for customers to take their cars for repairs and services, and dealers to attract customers. 

“With this investment, made through Suzuki Motor Corporation’s corporate venture capital fund, we aim to enhance the convenience of customers through expanding Bumper’s services.” 

Tristan Jennings, Senior Associate of Marubeni Ventures said, “Bumper has clearly demonstrated an ability to address the unique financing needs of automotive repair customers, reduce friction at point of sale and improve the user experience, while seamlessly integrating into existing dealership IT infrastructure. 

“We aim to leverage Marubeni’s existing businesses in the automotive and auto finance sectors to further expand Bumper’s reach and build upon its outstanding level of customer service.”

Bumper raises £2 million in Series B extension with Suzuki Global Ventures and Marubeni Ventures 

Bumper recauda 2 millones de libras en la ampliación de la ronda de financiación serie B gracias a Suzuki Global Ventures y Marubeni Ventures como nuevos inversores.

Bumper sammelt 2 Millionen Pfund in der Erweiterung der Serie B ein, wobei Suzuki Global Ventures und Marubeni Ventures als Investoren einsteigen

We're thrilled to announce, we have been named by the Financial Times as one of the fastest-growing companies in Europe.

 Bumper has ranked 281, its highest position to date, based on a compound growth rate of 93%.

 fastest-growing fintech in the listings and the 49

 fastest-growing UK business across all market sectors.

To qualify for the FT1000, companies must be European-based, independent and with revenues of at least €1.5m. Qualifying businesses are listed in order of highest compound growth rate in revenue over the five years to 2022.

“As a young start-up we are incredibly proud to be featured in the FT1000 and be acknowledged as one of the fastest-growing European companies for the fourth year in a row,” said James Jackson, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bumper.

“Our success is down to our talented teams in the UK, Spain, Germany, Netherlands and Turkey and the support of a fast-growing number of dealers choosing to use our platform in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.

“This listing comes at a significant time for the business. We successfully completed a £40m fundraise in 2023, which is already being used to accelerate the next stage of our growth which will see the number of repairs we help our dealer partners to facilitate double to 500,000 this year and continue to double on an annual basis.”

 to view the FT1000: Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies 2024.

Bumper ranked one of Europe’s fastest-growing companies by Financial Times

The Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary in east Cambodia protects almost 300,000 hectares of forest. Previously known as the Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area from 2002-09 and the Seima Protection Forest from 2009-16, the protected area is home to a wide range of biodiversity, forests, mountains, and indigenous communities.

For the Bunong people who live there, the forest is a key source of income and plays a large role in their spiritual beliefs. 

The region is also home to two geographically distinct areas of natural significance. The Annamite Mountains are notable for their vast evergreen forests and high levels of local species and the Mekong dry forest is crucial for local wildlife typical of the region to survive.

84 globally threatened species can be found in the project area, including Asian Elephants, primates, wild cattle, and birds such as the Giant Ibis and Green Peafowl. The world’s largest population of black-shanked douc and yellow-cheeked crested gibbon lives in the area.

However, local biodiversity and forest-dependent communities are increasingly under threat from unstainable resource extraction such as logging, hunting, and fishing.

The conservation work by the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary has had a huge impact on reducing emissions and protecting local wildlife and communities. Through their work, more than 20 million tonnes of CO2e emissions have been prevented from being released into the atmosphere and 25,000 hectares of forest saved from destruction. Shielding areas from deforestation prevents the release of emissions held within the forests’ biomass and soil.

The project also gives back to local communities, creating employment opportunities and supporting education and training programmes. An ecotourism venture has been established that supports these communities. 

Through a Cash for Communities Programme, that shares the revenue of carbon credit sales, the sanctuary has distributed almost $1 million. Funds go directly to the people of the region, who decide where funds should be allocated. The initiative has supported activities such as developing healthcare, education and building wells and bridges.

The Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary is one of the many climate-positive projects Bumper is contributing to through its partnership with 

Protecting Local Communities and Wildlife in Cambodia

Protegemos las comunidades locales y la fauna salvaje de Camboya

The automotive industry is undoubtedly one of the most dynamic in the world. It is a sector that lives and breathes on innovation, with those businesses innovating fastest and deepest always winning. Consumers are quick to vote with their wallets if a brand comes out with something they are desperate to get a piece of.

Whether you are a manufacturer or dealer, maintaining competitive advantage is no longer just about the vehicles you make and sell; it’s about product, service and brand seamlessly combining to tell consumers that this is the one for them.

This is where partners like Bumper have a critical role to play. Manufacturers and dealers do what they do best – make and sell cars – and bring the very best partners in the world in other crucial elements of the customer experience to ensure those three components of excellence are delivered.

Given this context, at Bumper we have always known that staying ahead of the curve is not just a goal, it is an absolute necessity. If you stand still, you die – and while we have been on an incredible growth journey to date, becoming what is undoubtedly one of the leading businesses in automotive payments in Europe, we – like our industry partners – strive for better.

The $48 million funding round we announced last week underpins that ambition. We want to be the dominant payment platform for car dealers across Europe, giving their customers the ultimate flexibility in making the necessary payments to keep their cars on the road.

Our journey began with a simple yet powerful idea: to make car repairs less financially burdensome for owners while empowering dealerships with advanced, digital payment solutions to enable those customers to say “yes” to the repairs and upgrades they need. Delivering a product to meet this simple mission has ultimately driven our exponential growth, and the endorsement of investment from JLR’s InMotion Ventures and Porsche Ventures is a hugely positive moment.

The recent funding round, led by Autotech Ventures and bolstered by Shell Ventures, in addition to both JLR and Porsche, is about more than capital: it is a resounding vote of confidence in our vision to become the go-to payment platform for dealers anywhere in the world.

Our strategy is straightforward yet ambitious. We’re expanding our reach, targeting key European markets including the UK, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Ireland. While Bumper is already available through 5,000 dealers, enabling more than 250,000 repairs in the past year alone, our goal is to double this number annually.

While the growth strategies of automotive businesses vary widely from brand to brand, they increasingly have one consistent goal: to support their customers with the car-related challenges they face, take the pressure away when decisions are difficult and, ultimately, give them the most enjoyable car-buying and owning experience possible. Financing servicing and repairs is a fundamental part of delivering that, and there has never been a more critical time for dealers to consider the services they provide, with the cost-of-living crisis leading any car owner or buyer to consider their options more deeply than I have seen in my lifetime.

Bumper’s success isn’t just measured in numbers, it’s reflected in the relief and satisfaction of car owners who can keep their vehicles on the road without financial strain, and in seeing the thriving businesses of our dealer partners that can offer more to their customers. These objectives are ultimately two that not only mean the end customer is hugely positive, it speeds-up the time to purchase and drives incremental revenue.

Innovative payments: Bumper’s new funding will support an exciting future for car dealers across Europe

Pagos innovadores: La nueva propuesta de Bumper abrirá un futuro apasionante para los concesionarios de automóviles de toda Europa.

Three teams headed to Ankara, Turkey this month to compete in Bumper’s annual hackathon. 

Racing against the clock, members of our development, product, design, and sales teams were split into three groups. They were tasked with creating a new feature to add to Bumper’s existing product offering. 

Over the course of just two days, the teams had to take their features from an initial concept into a fully workable feature. Teams were judged in five key areas: quality of code, user experience, commerciality, presentation, and inspiration. 

Matt Williams, Bumper’s Chief Growth Officer, headed up the winning team. He said, ‘Our annual hackathon is an opportunity for members of different departments to come together and focus on one project. The result is something really quite incredible. 

‘Last year our winning team created the ability for service advisors to see their customers’ reviews directly on their Bumper dashboard, adding immense value for our partnered garages and dealerships.

‘This year we’ve gone a lot bigger, looking at ways to improve the experience of the end user. The final product we’ve created is going to have a massive impact on the way our customer base can interact with us and we’re all incredibly excited to get it out there.’ 

Following the team’s win in Ankara, the new feature will go through several rounds of meticulous user testing before its release.

Three Bumper Teams Battle It Out for Hackathon Crown

The majority of energy consumed in Morocco is created by fossil fuels, with around 57% coming from oil, and 33% from coal. In 2021, solar energy in the country accounted for less than 2% of the overall energy mix. With such substantial solar and wind power potential, Morocco has been actively developing renewable energy sources to meet the growing demand.

The Ouarzazate solar power station is one such project looking to capitalise on the country’s solar power potential. One of the world’s largest concentrated solar projects, this huge facility uses concave mirrors to concentrate solar energy and generates 582 megawatts of electricity. 

The site can store up to 7 hours of solar energy for continuous power supply after sunset.

The chosen region for the project benefits from exceptionally high sunlight year-round, giving the power station a unique advantage for solar energy generation.

In addition to a new source of renewable energy, the project has had a big impact on local communities. 7,000 local job opportunities have been created as well as educational initiatives and skills training.

A mobile hospital to provide health services to the local community has been set up, and funding is given to the local medical centre, including an ultrasound machine.

Additionally, the project has helped the local community by providing a minibus, which has lowered the local school dropout rate. 

Through our partnership with Ecologi, Bumper contributes to lots of climate-positive projects throughout the world. To find out more about how Bumper gives back to our community head to our 

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