Car repair finance firm lands Bumper funding round from auto giants

A buy now, pay later specialist which helps motorists spread the cost of repairing their cars has landed millions of pounds from the venture arms of Jaguar Land Rover, Porsche and other leading automotive groups.

Sky News understands that Bumper, which is based in London and Sheffield, will announce later this week that it has raised $11m (£8.1m) in an extension to its Series B funding round. Founded in 2013 by James Jackson and Jack Allman, Bumper's latest capital injection is also backed by Suzuki Ventures and Shell Ventures.

The round was led by Autotech Ventures. The company, which has seen the number of motorists it assists soar in the past year, helps drivers split repair bills into BNPL interest-free instalments, and says it is now "operationally profitable".

It has expanded to Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain, and is also diversifying into other payment and software services through what it describes as "a targeted M&A strategy". "A sudden repair bill can hit families hard," said Mr Jackson, Bumper's chief executive.

"We created Bumper to give people control, flexibility and peace of mind when the unexpected happens. "Over 1.5 million drivers have now used our platform to keep their cars on the road without breaking the bank."Bumper is available as a financing option in more than 5,000 dealerships and garages, and counts car-makers including Audi, Ford, JLR, Nissan and Volkswagen among those with which it works.

Last October, the company acquired AutoBI, a business intelligence platform for car retailers and OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). More recently, it bought Cocoon Payments, a white-label solution which helps dealerships streamline digital payment processes."We're building out from our consumer BNPL roots into a full-stack platform for automotive retail," Mr Jackson said.

"By owning more of the payments stack and delivering software solutions to dealers, we can improve margins, simplify operations and support the future of mobility retail." The valuation at which Bumper's new funding had been raised was unclear on Wednesday..