ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter "ITOCHU") announced today that ITOCHU has invested in Bumper International Limited (head office: UK, hereinafter "Bumper"), a fintech company that provides Buy Now Pay Later (hereinafter "BNPL") services for car repairs and services in the UK and Ireland.

The entire after-sales market for automobiles in Europe is said to be about GBP100 billion (some GBP 20billion of which is in the U.K.). As BNPL is getting more common and popular payment option for online purchases, so the demand for BNPL in after-sales market is also growing.

Bumper is a leading BNPL service provider in the field of after-sales service for automobiles. It provides a digital payment and loans platform that enables customers to pay for automobile repairs or services, etc. in installments with no interest, and its unique AI technology enables real-time financing decisions. In the U.K., Bumper has established a network of approximately 3,300 merchants, mainly dealers of automobile manufacturers such as Nissan, Volkswagen Group^*, Ford and Jaguar Land Rover and major new car dealer groups such as Arnold Clark, Lookers, and Vertu. And Bumper has already made inroads into Ireland and is expanding in 2022 into other European countries including Germany, Austria and Spain.

One of ITOCHU's subsidiaries is First Response Finance Limited (hereinafter "FRF"), which operates a used car auto loan business in the U.K. through ITOCHU Europe PLC. We will support the expansion of both companies' businesses by strengthening the finance business for automobile-related businesses in Europe through collaboration with FRF going forward.

In addition to the U.K., ITOCHU is developing its overseas retail finance business in Hong Kong, Mainland China, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. ITOCHU will continue to further facilitate the expansion of its overseas retail finance business by providing services that meet the diverse financial needs of individuals in the future.

URL: https://www.bumper.co.uk/

Bumper provides an interest-free digital payment platform for vehicle repairs and services, enabling owners to spread their costs. The multi award-winning UK FinTech company delivers an instalment financing solution using proprietary AI enabled technology to facilitate real-time lending decisions.
For a second consecutive year, Bumper is listed in the 2022 FT1000 rankings of Europe’s fastest growing companies. Bumper works with 2,600 franchised dealers, over 700 garages and major car brands across the UK and Republic of Ireland, helping over 150,000 drivers to fund their servicing and repair bills.
Bumper is based in the UK, with a tech development centre in Ankara, Turkey.