Bumper expands executive team to ramp up growth plans

Bumper has expanded its executive team with four new appointments to prepare for the next stage of its growth in automotive payments.

The company said Francisca Gutierrez, Paul Edgecombe, Matt Williams and Leah Ellis bring experience from FinTech disruptors, tech unicorns and financial services businesses as they take up newly created positions within the business following the completion of its Series A funding round in December.

James Jackson, the chief executive and co-founder of Bumper, said: “They’re all super talented and highly regarded in their respective fields with collective experience in FinTech and fast growing disruptive start-ups, which will help us achieve our ambitious growth strategy as we increase our share of digital payments and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) in the UK and across Europe."

Having launched its interest-free Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) platform in Ireland last year, it is currently rolling out its services in Germany and plans to be in every major European market by the end of 2022.

Gutierrez has been appointed chief product officer, joining the company from Experian where she served as domain leader and senior product manager.

Edgecombe has joined as chief compliance officer from Selina Finance, where he was head of risk and compliance.

He will be responsible for implementing and managing Bumper’s compliance programme, ahead of the introduction of new regulatory rules in the BNPL market and will also oversee the extended regulatory compliance as Bumper launches into new territories.

Edgecombe has worked in compliance across FinTechs as well as challenger and high street banks, with senior roles at Barclays, Santander and Harrods Bank.

Williams joins in February as chief growth officer from Trainline, where he was head of growth technology, prior to which he was strategic analytics director with Jellyfish and head of analytics and optimisation at Rightmove.

Ellis has joined as interim chief people officer, where she will manage the employee growth Bumper is planning, which will take its headcount from 40 to over 100 staff within the next 12 months.

She has experience in managing staff growth at tech start-ups, most recently at Goodlord, the property lettings platform, and Eve Sleep, the online sleep brand, said Bumper.