Alastair Shephard

Content Writer

Alastair Shephard | Author

Bumper is the 8th fastest growing FinTech company and the 89th fastest growing across all sectors in the Financial Times’ list of Europe’s fastest-growing 1,000 companies.

The list, compiled annually by research company Statista, is determined by companies with the highest revenue growth between 2016 and 2019.

Also making the list is finance company, Sun Finance; energy companies, Bulb and Octopus Energy; and credit-score calculators, Clear Score.

The news is welcomed after many companies in Europe face financial pressures because of the pandemic and uncertainty with the Brexit change over. One thousand companies reporting revenue growth over the last few years is excellent news both for the economy and for the thousands they employ.

Our quick growth is evidence of the hard work and dedication of the internal team and the service teams in a difficult time. Team Bumper is grateful to the dealership group and garages who chose to offer our service and the many loyal customers who use it. Without your support we wouldn’t have made it into the top 100.

Bumper is 8th fastest growing FinTech company in Europe

1st March 2021 – We’re pleased to announce we’ve rebranded from AUTO SERVICE FINANCE to BUMPER.

We’ve refreshed our look and tuned up our name, so let’s pull up to the Bumper and see how we got here.

We chose Bumper as we wanted a name that epitomisess our brand values.

A name that conveys usefulness, convenience, and flexibility, whilst also being simple and transparent. One that was more memorable, shorter, and easier to recall than Auto Service Finance.

We believe the new name speaks to drivers and engages them - it’s human, upbeat, savvy, and different.

Car bumpers protect vehicles and their drivers - just like Bumper.

We chose the colour orange as we wanted to stand out from other FinTech and Buy Now Pay Later providers.

We wanted to choose a colour that was bold and striking, whilst also being friendly and inviting.

Much like how Cadbury’s own purple and Coca-cola own red – Bumper is here to own orange.

Visiting a garage can be a daunting experience.

It’s hard to know the good work from the bad, and a fair price from a rip-off.

We’ve built strong relationships with a network of responsible and trusted garages.

We bring you garages with the best workmanship and the fairest prices – matching top-class drivers with a top-notch service.

Then came a problem we all face – the cost of repairs.

From unexpected large amounts to small ones you’d rather skip, they are necessary for keeping you on the road.

We want to release drivers from the burden of the upfront lump-sum, with simple monthly payments, that are always interest-free.

So, whether you’re a driver looking for car repairs made easy or a garage looking to do things right – Bumper’s got your back.

Auto Service Finance has rebranded to Bumper

¿Qué es Bumper? Conócenos

Covid lockdowns and restrictions have prompted nearly two-thirds of car owners to delay servicing and repair work, even though they know dealer workshops and garages are open for business, according to consumer research by Bumper.

Bumper, the new name for Auto Service Finance, polled the views of 2,635 car owners in February to see whether decisions on having their vehicles maintained had been impacted by the pandemic.

The research found 63% had delayed services and repairs because of Covid restrictions, even though 86% admitted to being aware that garages and dealer workshops were permitted to operate.

“Our research highlights a worrying trend with most car owners admitting to being worried about taking their vehicles into garages and dealerships as a result of Covid restrictions,” said James Jackson, CEO and co-founder.

“This raises safety concerns as service schedules are being stretched and repair work is being put off. Dealers and garages need to allay customer fears by reassuring them that Covid-19 secure guidelines are in place with timed appointments, contactless handovers, vehicle sanitation and social distancing.”

Bumper’s research also identified that customers would favour the option of remote payment, rather than paying a service advisor in person. Most (53%) said they would prefer to pay for work remotely by phone, laptop or computer. Over half (57%) said their preference had changed as a direct result of Covid.

“As we work through the current lockdown it’s increasingly apparent that customers want reassurance from dealerships and garages. Encouraging them to pay remotely is an easy win, especially as most businesses are already set up to take payments over the phone, suggesting that communicating this option needs to be more widely promoted,” said Jackson.

Bumper provides an interest-free digital payment platform for vehicle repairs and services, enabling owners to spread their costs.

Formerly Auto Service Finance, the multi award-winning UK fintech company delivers an instalment financing solution using proprietary AI enabled technology to facilitate real-time lending decisions.

Bumper enables dealerships and garages to sell a larger proportion of red and amber work, reducing workshop downtime, with no risks or liabilities, while also creating greater customer loyalty.

Co-founded by CEO James Jackson and CCO Jack Allman, Bumper is rated 89 in the 2021 FT 1000 listing of Europe’s fastest growing companies. Bumper works with 2,500 franchised dealers, over 650 garages and major car brands across the UK and Republic of Ireland, helping over 100,000 drivers to fund their servicing and repair bills.

Bumper is based in Sheffield and London, with a tech development centre in Ankara, Turkey.

Nearly two-thirds of car owners delay servicing and repair work because of Covid concerns, finds Bumper research

Bumper ranks 21st in the Financial Times annual list of fastest-growing FinTech companies in Europe. This is the second consecutive year the business has made the list.

The list is comprised of independent companies that have shown strength and resilience. To qualify businesses needed a minimum revenue of £1.2 million in 2017. Growth is then calculated as an average over the last 5 years. 

Bumper CEO and co-founder, James Jackson, said, ‘We’re delighted to be featured on the FT1000 list, and incredibly proud to be one of the fastest-growing companies in Europe for the second year in a row.’

‘Over the last 12 months our growth has been powered by working with many of the top 100 dealer groups; new partnerships with Nissan, Keyloop, CitNOW and RTC; launching into Ireland and Germany, and securing £9m in Series A funding.

‘We're ideally positioned to achieve further growth in 2022. Our motivation remains the same as it always has been – to put motorists back in the driving seat, by offering accessible, affordable and manageable finance solutions for everything from repairs and maintenance to accessories and more recently the addition of add-ons including GAP, service plans, warranties and paint protection.’

With recent significant investments and an expanding executive team, Bumper is in a position to increase growth and continue its mission of empowering drivers. 

Bumper ranks 21st in the fastest growing FinTechs by Financial Times

Since Bumper began trading in 2015, we’ve signed up over 3,000 garages and dealerships to the Bumper family across the UK. Now, we’re taking our first international step by launching in Ireland.

So far, over 50 sites have joined the Bumper network to offer their customers affordable monthly payments on repairs, MOTs, service work, accessories, and parts. These include:

Whilst the concept of Buy Now Pay Later is fairly new in Ireland, our partners have already helped hundreds of customers drive away happy, with their invoices and repairs sorted.

The launch is the first step on Bumper’s mission to become Europe’s largest Buy Now Pay Later provider for car repairs.

CEO, James Jackson said of the launch, ‘It’s fantastic to see so many sites signing up to the Bumper network and the instant popularity our service has had with both garages and customers.

‘I’m pleased we’re now able to bring the increased opportunity for garages and greater customer satisfaction we’ve brought to UK garages for the last 5 years, to the Irish market.

‘The experience gained throughout the launch in Ireland has put the team in a better position for operating in other European countries and I’m excited to see what the future brings.’

If your vehicle needs a service, MOT or repair, Bumper’s got your back.

and get the best care for you and your car. Split repair bills into sensible monthly chunks – interest-free.

Here’s an example of a €400 bill split into 4 monthly instalments.

Bumper’s European roll-out begins with launch in Ireland

Bumper's europäische Markteinführung beginnt mit dem Start in Irland

Since the beginning of our partnership with Ecologi, we’ve funded the planting of over 2,500 trees and helped remove over 200 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere.

From reforestation in Scotland to delivering clean drinking water in Haiti, here’s an update on some of the climate positive projects Bumper has funded.

Much of British wildlife depends on forest cover. However, deforestation and the collapse of ecosystems has led to a decline in recent years.

The Future Forest Company (FFC) restores land through reforestation and natural regeneration, with the aim of increasing the amount of carbon dioxide stored by the earth.

Through carefully managed reforestation projects the FFC restores natural habitats for these species – helping them to thrive.

By operating rural sustainable businesses such as birch syrup, high-welfare pork and smoking wood products, the FFC is able to provide opportunities to local communities whilst protecting wildlife and ecosystems.

Haiti is one of poorest countries in the western hemisphere, with over 6 million Haitians living below the poverty line. The country is also incredibly vulnerable to natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods.

In 2010, a massive earthquake shook the country. There were over 300,000 deaths, and over $8 billion dollars in damages. This left close to 70% of Haitians without access to clean drinking water.

The clean drinking water project helped families access Hydraid water filters. The water filter consists of layers of sand and a biological surface that consumes pathogens to provide clean water. It can last for over 10 years and provides families of up to 10, access to clean and safe drinking water.

Bumper funds climate positive projects with Ecologi

Bumper has secured a £10m flexible working capital facility from Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance to support its ambitious growth plans.

This initial funding will be used to back continued expansion and growth across the UK, with the flexibility to increase in the future.

Bumper is Europe’s ninth fastest-growing fintech company according to the Financial Times and offers interest free Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) and PayNow products to finance vehicle repairs, servicing, add-ons and accessories.

The firm’s exponential growth follows a significant increase in dealership partners, with more than 60 per cent of the franchised market in the UK now using its platform, and the growing public adoption of BNPL to fund purchases. As a result, Bumper has seen record lending month-on-month and expects to see its gross merchandise value increase by threefold in 2021.

The initial facility will be used to support growth in the loan book and ensure Bumper can continue to help UK drivers spread the cost of their repair bills.

Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance provides a full suite of asset-based lending options including invoice financing, working capital and inventory financing. Currently the commercial finance arm of the listed bank has in excess £500m of facilities agreed to support growing businesses across the UK.

“Bumper is on a rapid growth trajectory, thanks to our continued increase in partner numbers, ever improving tech for dealerships, user experience for customers and our recent rebrand,” said James Jackson, CEO and co-founder of Bumper.

“We were keen to ensure that we partnered with a business that truly understood our market and objectives and could create a flexible facility with scope to grow with us. Secure Trust has invested time in getting to know the business, created a flexible facility that works for us and were able to deliver it quickly.”

The new funding provision follows last month’s launch of Bumper’s service in Ireland, its first European market outside of the UK, with the company planning to become Europe’s largest BNPL provider for car repairs and servicing.

Bumper provides an interest-free digital payment platform for vehicle repairs and services, enabling owners to spread their costs. Formerly Auto Service Finance, the multi award-winning UK fintech company delivers an instalment financing solution using proprietary AI enabled technology to facilitate real-time lending decisions.

Co-founded by CEO James Jackson and CCO Jack Allman, Bumper is rated 89 in the 2021 FT 1000 listing of Europe’s fastest growing companies as well as the ninth fastest growing fintech business. Bumper works with 2,500 franchised dealers, over 650 garages and major car brands across the UK and Republic of Ireland, helping over 100,000 drivers to fund their servicing and repair bills.

Bumper secures £10m facility as it targets further expansion

The UK startup offering interest-free flexible payments for car repairs sets sights on Europe after ‘bumper’ year

UK-based auto fintech startup Bumper has raised $12M in Series A funding to roll out its car repair financing platform across Europe. The round is led by Silicon Valley based Autotech Ventures, with participation from Porsche Ventures and Jaguar Land Rover’s fund InMotion Ventures, and a group of prominent angel investors. The latest round brings total funds raised by the company to $17.5m.

Bumper enables customers to spread the cost of car repairs by offering interest-free, flexible payments to help drivers better afford necessary repairs and maintenance. Customers can split bills and authorise repairs in seconds via a fully digital automated process, making the process more efficient and removing the need for uncomfortable price negotiations with dealerships. 

With new car purchases currently at their lowest since 1998

 with a growing need for financing repairs on older vehicles. This is reflected in the European aftersales market, which is projected to 

Alongside the consumer offering, Bumper partners with the world’s leading OEMs including Volkswagen Group, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover and Nissan, and approximately 60% of the franchised UK dealer market currently use Bumper’s payment platform. For automotive partners, using Bumper’s payment solution increases repair conversion rates and reduces discounting and price negotiation, a costly practice which leads to losses for the retailer and poor customer satisfaction. Bumper charges a small transaction fee to the dealerships in exchange for providing the full cost of the repair up front.

Bumper is the only BNPL provider to aggregate thousands of vehicle and consumer finance data, with thorough affordability checks, ensuring it is always lending responsibly. To ensure both dealerships and consumers are protected from loan defaults, Bumper has developed a Machine Learning-enabled automotive scorecard as part of a rigorous credit checking process; this includes accessing the dealerships’ APIs to source customer information quickly and without laborious application processes.

Already a dominant player in the UK and Ireland, Bumper is currently rolling out its product in Germany, plans to launch in Spain and the Netherlands in the next three months, and has ambitions to be in every major European market by the end of 2022. The new funding will go towards hiring in these new markets, scaling the tech team, and marketing efforts as they build out the B2C proposition.

Plans are also in the pipeline for the widespread launch of a consumer app, which will act as a one stop shop for all automotive requirements, such as payments for congestion charges, parking and tolls, and approving repair work. The app is due to launch in the UK in January 2022.

Bumper was named eighth fastest-growing European fintech by the Financial Times this year, and has already been profitable for the last 18 months, with GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) set to triple by the end of this year. Unlike other Buy Now Pay Later models, Bumper’s transactions are typically large, one-off sums. This means that customers are not being encouraged to regularly borrow more than they can afford, and default rates are low.

 said: “The current process for handling car repairs is broken on both sides, with dealerships selling just 40% of identified repairs and drivers left out of pocket and with dangerous vehicles. Bumper offers a simple alternative to unexpected car repairs. It’s a very different proposition to other Buy Now Pay Later services, as we’re not encouraging people to buy things they don’t need, we’re enabling them to purchase necessary repairs at an affordable rate. We’ve seen huge demand for expanding the services we offer, and are looking forward to bringing Bumper to customers across Europe.”

 said: “Buy Now Pay Later is the fastest growing online payment method globally. Bumper’s market-leading proposition will benefit the millions of consumers who need more flexibility when paying for crucial repairs. The technology seamlessly integrates with the existing systems of dealerships and OEMs, which combined with rigorous credit checking, offers merchants and dealerships a level of security previously unseen in the industry. We’re looking forward to working with the Bumper team and supporting the expansion of the business across Europe.”

Alexei Andreev, Managing Director, Autotech Ventures said:

 “We are very excited about the Buy Now Pay Later business model, which has empowered consumers all over the world. We believe that automotive repairs and the aftermarket are the next big BNPL frontiers, and that modern software and clever financial tools can unlock substantial value for industry participants. The Bumper team has succeeded in building an industry-leading product in the UK and we are eager to support its expansion to Continental Europe. Bumper’s business ties with leading automotive OEMs, deep integration with dealerships and repair quotation tools create formidable entry barriers for other players. Autotech Ventures is fully committed to providing business development resources and bringing new partnerships to accelerate Bumper’s growth”.

 (formerly Auto Service Finance) provides an interest-free digital payment platform for vehicle repairs and services, enabling owners to spread their costs. It also delivers an instalment financing solution using proprietary AI enabled technology to facilitate real-time lending decisions.

Named eighth fastest growing fintech in the 2021 FT1000 rankings of Europe’s fastest growing companies, Bumper works with 2,500 franchised dealers, over 700 garages and major car brands across the UK and Republic of Ireland, helping over 100,000 drivers to fund their servicing and repair bills.

Bumper is based in London and Sheffield, with a tech development centre in Ankara, Turkey.

UK ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ provider Bumper raises $12M Series A from Autotech, Porsche Ventures and Jaguar Land Rover

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