Preparing the ‘staid’ auto finance industry for major challenges was the aim of the first ‘innovation lab’ founded by BMW Financial Services.

It saw five start-ups spend 10 weeks embedded at the Farnborough headquarters of its.

They all had access to its advice and one-to-one mentorship from board-level representatives across the business.

Mike Dennett, BMW Group Financial Services UK chief executive, said: “Automotive finance will face a number of major challenges in the coming years and with the industry seeing such little innovation in the past decade there are genuine fears that our sector is simply unprepared for change.

“Through the Innovation Lab, we set out to tackle these challenges head-on by harnessing the disruptive energy and technology of startups and encouraging a culture of innovation to take hold throughout our business.”

The programme concluded with a ‘demo day’ where the five companies pitched to BMW FS UK for a final time in the hope of building long-term commercial relationships with the business.

BMW Group Financial Services is now in discussion with all five start-ups.

The programme began in early October.

Of 127 applications received from around the world, the five below start-ups were selected:

Launched by BMW Group Financial Services UK and innovation specialist L Marks, The Innovation Lab is the auto finance sector’s first ever accelerator programme, aimed at injecting innovation into an industry which has largely remained the same for around 15 years. 

The BMW FS Innovation Lab video