Alastair Shephard

Content Writer

The appointment reflects Bumper’s focus on evolving its platform, bringing further innovation to the automotive sector and delivering tech-led convenience to dealers and their customers.

Fran joins from Experian where she served as Domain Leader and Senior Product Manager. She was also formerly a Senior Product Manager at Lebara, where she was in charge of the business’ ecommerce platform and, prior to which she was Product Manager at Wonga where she co-led the rollout in Spain. 

Her career in product management began after graduating with an MBA from the London Business School in 2011.

Fran sits on Bumper’s six-strong executive team and is currently managing the international launch of the platform into continental Europe, starting with Germany, followed by Spain, the Netherlands, and Portugal.

She is also leading the development of a new white label customer app which will be offered by dealer groups to help improve aftersales retention. 

“I was attracted to Bumper because it’s a fintech with ambitious growth plans. The business is still relatively small, which makes it agile, but it has good funding which is allowing it to scale quickly,” she said.

“It was also an exciting opportunity to work with a tech leader and help further develop a platform which resonates with dealers and their customers. A major part of my job is listening to dealerships and understanding their requirements and working out how they can make better use of the Bumper platform, especially as we move into Europe where each market has different local nuances.”

Bumper has appointed Francisca Gutierrez Marticorena to the new position of Chief Product Officer

Bumper CPO Francisca Gutierrez has become the latest business leader to join the Automotive 30% Club. 

Gutierrez said gender balance is central to the expanding business’ accelerated recruitment drive as it scales up its digital aftersales payment platform in the UK and across Europe. 

The Automotive 30% Club is a voluntary group comprised of managing directors and CEOs founded to achieve a better gender balance across the automotive industry, with the aim of filling at least 30% of key leadership positions in its members’ organisations with women by 2030. 

Gutierrez said: “I’m really excited and honoured to be joining the Automotive 30% Club and look forward to working with the team and fellow members to actively promote gender balance by recruiting and retaining the best possible talent across the automotive sector. 

“As a fast-growing fintech business, Bumper is now hiring a lot of people at scale, which brings a number of challenges. Being a member of the Automotive 30% Club will help us build a framework and structure to ensure our hiring process is always as inclusive and diverse as possible. 

"This is not only a moral and ethical responsibility but also adds commercial value, as we believe a diverse management team makes better strategic decisions.” 

Julia Muir, the founder of the Automotive 30% Club, said: "It's great to welcome Francisca Gutierrez to the Automotive 30% Club. I'm very pleased that Francisca is putting a gender-balance and inclusion strategy at the centre of Bumper's growth plans and it is evident that she recognises the important role played by gender-balanced diverse teams in achieving business success. I shall look forward to bringing her into our network where we all share ideas and solutions to achieve diversity and inclusion goals" 

Bumper CPO Francisca Gutierrez becomes latest member to join Automotive 30% Club 

A recent survey by the Motor Ombudsman found that 68% of motorists plan to 

 due to the current cost of living crisis.

The survey of 2,000 participants revealed that 56% of car owners didn't currently have a service plan, 23% expected to delay their service and 33% expected to miss their annual recommend service entirely.

 isn’t mandatory, the check is recommended by manufacturers and is important for keeping the vehicle in good condition and safe for road users. 60% of respondents recognised the importance of an annual service and 35% understood the positive impact a service history can have on the vehicle’s resale value.

The survey revealed motorists were concerned about the cost-of-living hike, with 87% of motorists concerned about the high cost of petrol and diesel, as well as other large increases, such as National Insurance rising to 1.25% and an increase in inflation resulting in higher supermarket goods.

Consumers plan to react by cutting back on their vehicle use by walking or cycling, driving more efficiently to reduce fuel consumption, and shopping around for cheaper car insurance.

Find out more about reducing your fuel consumption.

Bill Fennell, Managing Director of the Motor Ombudsman, said “April has seen a coming together of several cost of living increases, which have unfortunately hit the wallets of consumers all at the same time. It’s therefore inevitable that something has to give, and our study has shown that servicing and vehicle maintenance is being seen as less of a priority. This is, of course, concerning – not following the vehicle manufacturer’s servicing schedule, and not taking their car to a garage to be looked at by a professional in the event of any mechanical problems is essentially compromising the safety and value of the vehicle.” 

Bumper’s PayLater platform puts drivers back in the driving seat by allowing them to split repairs, MOTs, services and accessories in monthly instalments, completely interest-free. Our quick and easy-to-complete applications are completed online in just a few clicks.

Complete the registration form on our website for more information about how Bumper can grow your aftersales department.

Motorists plan to delay service due to cost of living crisis

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.

The co-founder and CEO of carwow 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 onboard,” 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 gamechanger 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 (

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

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