News Archives - Evolution Funding

Evolution Funding Completes Strategic Sales Restructure

Evolution Funding has completed a strategic restructure of its sales function in a move that will support the company’s ambitious growth plans.

Paul Hibbert, who has successfully led the major accounts division for over eleven years, will be bringing his extensive experience to his new role as Customer Engagement Director. Paul will oversee the team that provides support for Evolution’s brand partnerships consumer channel and will be responsible for leveraging the significant opportunities in that area.

In his role as Strategic Relationships Director, Paul successfully built and delivered Evolution’s major accounts proposition over the course of eleven and a half years. Introduced to focus on the UK’s Top 100 dealer groups, Paul established the strategy, structure and team and over that period, took yearly major advances from £0 to £576m in 2022. In addition, Major have supported the largest dealerships and car supermarkets in the digitisation of their car finance proposition.

Paul has over 30 years’ experience in the motor industry and held various senior positions in finance and insurance before joining Evolution in 2011. He brings a wealth of sales and leadership experience to his new role in Customer Engagement.

Taking up the mantle from Paul, responsibility for Evolution’s key dealer relationships has passed to Ian Smith. In his role as Head of Sales, Ian will oversee Major, Signature (Evolution’s bespoke vehicle finance solution), and Leisure.

Ian has over 35 years’ experience in the finance industry across multiple sectors such as retail credit, home improvement, motor, motorcycles, and marine. He has been with Evolution for eight years and during that time, in his role as Regional Sales Director, he looked after several Top 200 dealership groups, including Norton Way Group, JCB Group, Wilmoths, and Jemca. In 2022, Ian led the South-East region team to deliver £100M advances and win Team of the Year.

Ian said:

“I’m very excited about coming into this role as I’ve had experience across all of the various sectors at some point or another in my career. The sheer variety of the sectors I will be looking after, plus managing some great talent within the business, really gets my motor running! With this experience and a track record of success, I hope to be able to continue on from the great work that Paul has done since the Major Accounts Team was formed a number of years ago.”

Evolution Funding boosts technology proposition with offshore partnership

Evolution Funding has established an Indian offshore technology centre in partnership with ClearVue Solutions.

The new hub, located in Chennai, gives Evolution access to a pool of highly skilled individuals, complementing their established UK-based business technology centre. The offshore team further strengthens Evolution’s position as a technical leader in motor finance whilst also supporting its growth plans.

Paul Saggar, Evolution Funding’s Chief Innovation Officer, said:

“This is another major milestone in the Evolution Funding journey and one that will further strengthen our product offering by giving us access to a wider pool of technology-focused resources. Establishing this offshore capability has been a key initiative, so I’m extremely pleased to see this up and running. I look forward to working with our India-based team.”

Evolution will continue to grow both their UK and Indian business technology teams over the coming months to accelerate their product roadmap as the business pursues opportunities to lead digital innovation in motor finance.

Evolution Funding partners with Motiv Finance to deliver advanced credit pre-screening solution

Evolution Funding (‘Evolution’) and Motiv Finance (‘Motiv’) have announced a partnership in which the two will join forces to build new technology products for the motor finance market.

The joint collaboration agreement will see the companies share elements of their existing credit pre-screening technologies with each other, with plans to co-build an advanced solution. Both will commit significant R&D investment into the project which will underpin components of Evolution’s new CreditScanner product. Evolution and Motiv will also cooperate on other projects including consumer self-serve automation and data intelligence.

Lee Streets, Evolution’s chief executive, said:

“This is an exciting and innovative new partnership for us. We have built a relationship with Motiv for several years, and it became clear that there are significant synergies between the two businesses. We have the same aspirations for the motor finance consumer journey and so it made perfect sense to partner up. We look forward to exploring the opportunities this alliance will reveal.”

Commenting on the partnership, Motiv founder Stuart Davey said:

“We are delighted to have partnered with Evolution and are keen to identify ways to leverage our combined strengths to progress motor finance technology. There is a huge opportunity to help retailers, lenders, and consumers through this initiative.”

Due to launch in 2023, Evolution’s CreditScanner is a personalised payment search for consumers. Delivering instant credit pre-approval with real rate offers, the customer will be served a personalised monthly payment quote on-screen and in real-time against the retailer’s online stock.

Evolution Funding Achieves £1 Billion Advances Milestone

Evolution Funding has celebrated a key motor finance milestone of transacting £1 billion in advances in the calendar year so far, with total platform transactions of more than £1.5 billion.

The achievement comes seven months after the business posted a record month in March of £117.4 million in advances.

Lee Streets, chief executive of Evolution Funding, said:

“Reaching this £1 billion milestone is a proud moment for everyone in the business. This target was set when we launched our new vision, mission, and values in December 2019.
“Part of our mission was to intermediate £1 billion in consumer advances via our platform. To have delivered this less than three years later is an incredible achievement. Considering we still have two more months to go, we will far exceed that goal in 2022.
“The last few years have seen us grow exponentially, and we successfully emerged from the pandemic in a strong market position. We have focused heavily on building out our technology proposition, as well as strengthening our internal teams right up to board level.
“My thanks go out to our amazing staff for their continued commitment and focus, along with those dealers and partners who have supported us over the years. We are about to head into our twentieth year of trading and this milestone gives us a great springboard for the next stage of our growth.”

Evolution Funding and Click Dealer – One Year On

Evolution Funding & Click Dealer One Year On

How time flies! July is officially one year since Evolution Funding and Click Dealer joined forces.

It’s incredible that in such a short time, so much has been achieved, from holding workshops on Compliance, Automation and Eligibility, allowing us to open valuable channels for knowledge sharing, to both companies growing in their position as market leaders in their respective areas.

“The warm welcome we received straight out of the gates has helped everybody come together and it has been exciting so far and continues to be about what we can achieve together”
Pippa Rawlinson CFO – Click Dealer

Both Evolution Funding and Click Dealer have spent the last 12 months investing and building important synergies and relationships that will allow us to unlock benefits over the coming year.

These benefits include how Evolution Funding and Click Dealer can collaboratively build and bring unique propositions and solutions to the market.

“I do believe that with the enthusiasm, the hard yards we have put into year one, we will definitely see those synergy benefits coming through in year two and we have an incredible proposition to take to market.”
Lee Streets CEO – Evolution Funding

One year has passed but the best is yet to come.

Evolution Funding celebrates milestone with Mind charity donation

As part of Evolution Funding’s £100 million in advances milestone celebrations, we were delighted to present Dorset Mind with a cheque for £1000.

Dorset Mind was nominated for the donation by our dealer partner Poole Audi after one of their deals led to the milestone being achieved.

The charity, one of a network of 125 local Minds, educates, challenges mental health stigma and inequality, and encourages recovery by empowering individuals to develop resilience. 

Their 1-2-1 and group support includes active monitoring, befriending, counselling, mentoring, and support groups. The charity also delivers educational wellbeing programmes for schools and workplaces and provides volunteer opportunities.

Jason Dean, Evolution Funding Account Manager, said:

“I am delighted to present this cheque to Mind Dorset. It is an exciting time for Evolution, and I am so pleased that it has been one of my dealers that has helped us hit that £100 million milestone. Thank you to Poole Audi for their continued support and for selecting a worthy cause like Mind to receive the donation.”

Linda O’Sullivan, Dorset Mind CEO added:

“I would like to say a huge thank you for your generous donation. Support from businesses like Evolution helps us fund essential support for local people living with mental ill-health in Dorset. Coming out of the pandemic and following lockdowns, our early intervention support and education has never been more needed.”

First £100m month for Evolution Funding

Evolution Funding has written over £100 million of advances in a month for the first time. The record advances delivered during March have been described as a “massive milestone” for the motor finance broker and technology provider.

The business, which will celebrate 20 years of trading this year, emerged from 2021 with strong year-on-year growth in advances of 178%.

Lee Streets, Evolution Funding chief executive said: “2021 saw an impressive performance for Evolution, with £835m in loan advances and nearly 67,000 vehicles funded. Achieving this £100 million milestone sets us up for brokering £1 billion of motor finance in 2022.
It only seems like yesterday that we were celebrating writing 1000 cases in a month for the first time. Achieving £100 million advances has been an incredible effort from every team and individual within the company and we thank everyone wholeheartedly for their continued focus and determination.”

Chris Coverdale, Evolution Funding Group Sales Director added: “We have been consistent in delivering new technology and integrated digital and financial solutions to the motor finance market year on year. This strategy has paid dividends in an industry where digitisation has been accelerated during the pandemic and regulatory changes require an innovative response in support of our dealers and partners.
I am immensely proud of what we have achieved. I remember the first time we set £100M advances as an annual target and there were some people who told us it was impossible!”

Image shows (l to r): Sam Osborn, Head of Compliance; Angela Larkin, Head of HR; Katie Hayes, Chief Operating Officer; Keith Bell, Sales Director; Adam Small, Head of Operations

Evolution Funding is Best Broker for Sixth Year in a Row

Evolution Funding is delighted to have been awarded ‘Best Broker’ for the sixth consecutive year at the annual Car Finance Awards 2021.

The awards, which are judged by an independent panel of motor finance experts and business leaders, saw Evolution also win the categories of ‘Best Direct Consumer Proposition’ for the second time, and ‘Innovation Award’ for our Credit Score-Based Pricing product.

The evening was hosted by Credit Strategy’s chief executive Luke Broadhurst, who was later joined by critically acclaimed comedian George Lewis to present the awards.

Judges comments: Evolution Funding had an incredibly strong entry. Judges were particularly impressed with its performance, continual innovation and digital solutions. One of the judges said that Evolution Funding’s achievements would ‘simply take your breath away.’

Judges comments: Evolution Funding’s entry wowed the judges by demonstrating how it fills a gap in the market and drives technological developments. Judges were particularly impressed by its digital integration with price comparison sites, labelling the entry as ‘stand out’.

Award collected by Alan Smith, Commercial Director

Judges comments: Evolution Funding wins this award due to its Credit Score-Based Pricing. Judges said this was a great solution to FCA rules and is a standout innovation. The judging panel was highly impressed by Evolution Funding’s continual digital innovation.

Award collected by Paul Saggar, Chief Innovation Officer

To view the entire Car Finance Awards 2021 winner’s list, please visit: https://bit.ly/CFAwards2021

Evolution Funding bolsters digital proposition with acquisition of Click Dealer.

Evolution Funding Click Dealer Acquisition Directors

Evolution Funding Group (“Evolution”), the leading motor finance broker and technology provider to the UK used car market, has completed the acquisition of automotive software and digital services provider Click Dealer Limited (“Click”) for an undisclosed sum. The transaction marks a significant move to broaden Evolution’s digital and SaaS proposition.

Since receiving investment from mid-market private equity firm LDC in 2019, Evolution has achieved significant growth, enhancing its technology platform and developing best-in-class online finance customer journeys. Offering innovative credit pre-screening, automated lender selection, finance self-serve and checkout automation technologies, Evolution is at the forefront of the growth in online motor finance in the UK. This strategic acquisition, which was supported with follow-on funding from LDC, will help bring these capabilities to Click Dealer customers and takes Evolution a step further towards its next milestone of brokering more than £1bn motor finance in a year.

Click was formed in 1999 and has established itself as a leading automotive software business, provider of dealer website hosting, proprietary dealer management systems, and associated digital solutions for independent motor retailers. Click currently services and supports over 1,550 dealers across the UK.

Click is highly complementary to Evolution’s existing services and further backs its growth strategy to enhance its technology, digital capabilities and SaaS proposition. The company employs a team of 63 at their head office in Stoke-on-Trent and will continue to operate under the leadership of Gerry Moxham, Ollie Moxham and Pippa Rawlinson. It will remain as a separate legal entity within the Evolution Funding Group.

Lee Streets, chief executive at Evolution, said: “We are acquiring a highly-regarded data-driven, end-to-end, automotive software provider. They have a fantastic reputation in the market and there are many similarities with our own company culture – it’s a great fit.

“A key part of Evolution’s vision is to lead change and digital innovation in motor finance. The acquisition of Click, with its market-leading platform, will help accelerate our ability to deliver this, whilst also supporting our objective of brokering £1 billion of motor finance in the UK.

“We are keen to maintain Click Dealer’s agnostic position on finance, offering true flexibility and choice for the retailer and the customer. In addition, our aim is to make innovative features and functions available via Click’s platform that deliver best-in-class digital finance journeys and increase point of sale finance sales for dealers.

“We will work quickly to offer Click retailers’ access to Evolution’s technology. The prospect of creating frictionless online finance journeys for consumers on the Click platform is incredibly exciting for both businesses.”

Gerry Moxham, founder of Click Dealer, said: “We are delighted to be embarking on the next stage of Click’s journey as part of the well respected and highly successful Evolution Funding Group.

“This strategic decision to integrate with Evolution puts us in a great position to support dealers now, and in the future, as a true performance partner. We look forward to working with the team at Evolution in delivering new innovations and integrated digital and financial solutions for dealerships across the UK.”

LDC’s Lawrence Dean said: “This is a significant milestone for Evolution as the business looks to enhance its market position and technology capabilities. We will continue to work closely with the management team to identify other complementary businesses that support the management team’s growth strategy.”