Volt, the global real-time payments platform, today announces its partnership with Bumper, a payment platform for car dealerships, to harness the power of open banking and real-time payments so that consumers can pay for vehicle deposits, repairs, parts, services and even purchase vehicles outright.
This partnership comes amidst a rebound in UK car sales, as more were sold in the UK in 2023 than in any year since the Covid-19 pandemic, with used car sales particularly booming, experiencing 5.5% year-on-year growth in Q3 2023. This rebound is already being reflected in Volt and Bumper’s sales volume, as since dealerships began quickly adopting the integration in January 2024, more than £3 million in payments has been processed in the UK, with some customers using Volt to buy cars outright.
Volt now powers Bumper’s ‘Pay Now’ function, facilitating these automotive payments, with dealerships receiving the benefit of instant settlements, which are tracked in real time. Helping to digitise dealerships, the integration also allows checkout flow and pay-by-link options, providing a mobile-first experience to the service car dealerships provide.
The collaboration addresses a key pain point for dealerships by eliminating friction caused by slow settlement times. With the freedom of knowing payments settle instantly, dealerships gain greater control over their cash flow and inventory, also reducing the risk of non-payment or system errors. Volt’s integration is currently available in the UK, but will later launch in more European countries, as part of Bumper’s European expansion plans.
Volt and Bumper’s collaboration shows that when merchants actively push open banking payments, customers are happy to use them, reporting safer and safer experiences; helping to drive UK open banking adoption in a pivotal year of the technology’s development. The partnership brings open banking payments to customers of over 5,000 dealerships throughout the UK, including several of the world’s major automotive manufacturers, such as Audi, Ford, Porsche and Volkswagen.
Commenting on the news, Richard Drury, VP of Partnerships at Volt, said: “For car dealerships, the payments process has been a major challenge and our solution is a real asset in alleviating those challenges many dealership owners are facing today. We’ve created a perfect solution for Bumper, with the initial results and quick adoption proving that it resonates with both buyers and sellers. There’s huge potential for real-time payments to take off in the automotive industry, so this partnership was a no-brainer for Volt.”
Jack Allman, CCO and Co-Founder at Bumper, added: “The move to Volt as Bumper’s Open Banking payment provider will have a huge impact on functionality for our partnered dealerships and their customers, providing them with a frictionless account-to-account payment experience.
“This new partnership enhances our open banking infrastructure with increased functionality including settlement accounts, real-time notifications and refunds. These developments will increase operational efficiency and automation across all users, whether they work in accounts, sales or service. Additionally, Volt’s global payment network facilitates Bumper to roll out our Open Banking product across Europe in the near future. We’re incredibly excited to have launched this next phase of our Open Banking platform and can’t wait to see the increased value this new iteration will bring to our partners.
Having announced partnerships with Shopify and Worldpay last year, working with Bumper marks another step in Volt’s growth journey, which includes a successful Series B funding round and Australia expansion in 2023. Meanwhile, Bumper has started 2024 on a high, raising £40m in its own Series B funding round, fuelling plans to launch in more European countries this year, which Volt’s global payments network will help facilitate.
