Evolution Funding has appointed Mat Hanson as Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO), a newly created position that will play a pivotal role in driving the company’s long-term value creation plan. Hanson’s appointment is part of Evolution Funding’s strategic efforts to enhance its capacity at the Group level and support its growth objectives.

Hanson will oversee key aspects of Evolution’s transformation and strategy, including mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and potential international expansion. He will also oversee key stakeholder and shareholder relationships, including those with investors Carlyle and LDC, as well as banking and debt funding partners.

With over 17 years of experience in financial leadership, Hanson brings CFO expertise in technology-driven and private equity-backed businesses. His prior achievements include leading six strategic international acquisitions and a significant private equity sale at Cawood Scientific, as well as driving financial growth and refinancing at Travel Counsellors.

Hanson said:

“I am delighted to join Evolution Funding. The company’s culture, strong values, and impressive track record were key factors in my decision. With Carlyle’s backing and a solid foundation in place, I am confident in the company’s future prospects and look forward to contributing to its continued success.”

Lee Streets, chief executive officer, said:

“Mat brings a wealth of experience in leading financial strategies that drive both growth and operational efficiency. His expertise in managing complex acquisitions and his experience with private equity make him an ideal fit for our next phase of growth. We are pleased to welcome him to the team and are confident he will make an immediate and positive impact.”

Evolution Funding proudly announces its 20th anniversary in business, a remarkable achievement in an ever-evolving market.

This significant milestone highlights the company’s dedication, resilience, and unwavering commitment to excellence in serving its dealers and partners.

Since its establishment, Evolution Funding has emerged as a leader in the motor finance industry by consistently delivering innovative solutions and exceptional services. Over the past two decades, the company has grown from strength to strength, evolving its business model, expanding its market presence, and nurturing long-lasting partnerships.

As part of the 20th-anniversary celebrations, Evolution held a Summer Party at Ringwood Hall, Chesterfield to thank staff for their unwavering contributions to the company’s success and recognise long-serving staff members, including Evolution’s original three: Lucy Hannant, James Burke, and Emma Barley.

What Evolution’s Founding Directors Had to Say

Lee Streets, CEO

“Words fail me to describe my feelings on reaching our 20-year milestone. Would I have believed we would build the market-leading motor finance platform, smash through £1 billion in advances, acquire other great businesses in Click and Motion and have so many amazing people join us for the journey – no way! Thank you to everybody for your hard work, passion, and belief in team Evo!”

Jeremy Levine, Group Executive Director

“Those early years were hard, hard yards, but such great memories. Of fax proposals, pods spreadsheets, BCT searches and flat rates, NHM, GE and Fortis, of urgent payouts, 50, 100, 200 deals a month – how could you ever do 300 deals in a month? I love being part of Evolution Funding, building a business, our people, teams, and culture. We’ve worked miracles and overcome so many challenges. We’ve had some great laughs and a few tears, and I’m just so proud of everyone – thank you.”

Chris Coverdale, Group Sales Director

“Reaching our 20th anniversary makes me feel like a proud parent! The first four or five years were mainly about survival – creating a compelling broker proposition, generating income, cultivating relationships with dealers and funders, managing costs, and staying solvent. Then came the 2008 credit crunch and a recession! That taught us to be resilient, adaptive, and creative. 2012-2019 were our teenage years – rapid growth in people and volume, whilst developing and refining our proposition to be more tech-focused. Then came COVID and lockdowns and once again our resilience was tested, but our adaptability and creativity helped us emerge stronger than ever. Now Evolution is a mature company, with incredibly dedicated and talented people who espouse our core values and create an Evolution culture we can all be proud to say we are part of.”

Looking ahead, Evolution remains committed to its vision ‘To lead change, digital innovation, and excellence in motor finance’. The milestone comes in a year when the company was named Car Finance Awards ‘Best Broker’ for the eighth consecutive year, along with ‘Best Service for Dealers’.

Photography credited to: https://matthewjonesphotography.co.uk/

Evolution Funding has been awarded ‘Best Broker’ and ‘Best Service for Dealers’ at the Car Finance Awards 2023.

This marks the eighth consecutive year that Evolution has been named ‘Best Broker’, with an entry that focused on the company’s £1 billion in advances milestone, its automation achievements, operational excellence programme, and market-leading platform.

The ‘Best Service for Dealers’ entry focused on Evolution’s 2022 operational excellence programme and covered its continuous process improvement, implementation of a ‘right first time’ approach, RPA and automation, credit score-based pricing, and pre-pay.

The awards, which were held on 22^nd June at The Point, Lancashire Cricket Ground in Manchester, celebrated the achievements and successes of the motor finance industry. Judged by an independent panel of judges, a Car Finance Award represents an outstanding achievement of best practice in the industry.

Click here to view the full list of winners.

Evolution Funding has been awarded the coveted accolade of Car Finance Provider of the Year – Independent lender (non-bank owned) at the Credit Strategy Credit Awards 2023.

These flagship awards for the credit and financial services industry are judged by an independent panel of experts and industry leaders. Regarded as the ‘Oscars of the industry’, they recognise and celebrate innovation, best practice, and achievements across the entire industry.

Evolution faced tough competition when they were shortlisted alongside Oodle and Zuto in a category that requires entrants to showcase a range of achievements that place the firm ahead of its competitors in its sector.

With an entry focused on Evolution’s financial, technology, customer experience, and operational excellence achievements, the win is testament to the significant work going on behind the scenes by every team in the business.

Congratulations to all finalists and the winners, the full list of which can be found here: https://www.creditstrategy.co.uk/creditawards/credit-awards-winners

Warrington-headquartered broker Motion Finance focuses on sourcing finance for small-to-medium-sized used car dealerships throughout the UK. The company focuses on providing a ‘hands-on’ service and taking the leg work out of finance for its dealer partners. Motion Finance employs 64 staff, and was founded in 2007 by Ian and Wendy Kennah, with the addition of sales director Ian Kay in 2017. The business will continue to operate under its own brand, with Motion Finance’s existing management team at the helm.

The acquisition aligns with Evolution’s growth objectives and marks the business’ second bolt-on following the acquisition of automotive software and digital services provider Click Dealer in 2021.

Since LDC’s investment in 2019, Evolution has also significantly expanded its management team – led by CEO Lee Streets – and picked up a number of awards in recognition of its digital and SaaS proposition. Alongside the continued investment in its technology and digital capabilities, Evolution has increased its market share by winning several large national accounts and building out its core regional dealer base, which the addition of Motion Finance will further enhance.

Lee Streets, CEO at Evolution, said:

“Motion Finance prides itself on providing its customer base with the best possible service and setting the standards for UK vehicle finance brokerage, an ethos that fits perfectly with our own. We look forward to welcoming the team and working together to explore opportunities for further growth.”

Lawrence Dean, Partner and Head of South at LDC, added:

“This acquisition represents another landmark step for Evolution’s growth journey and the best-in-class service it offers. We’re excited to see what’s next for Lee and the team and will continue to be a trusted partner and help them identify other complementary acquisitions to support the business’ growth.”

Ian Kennah, Managing Director of Motion Finance, said:

“We’ve worked extremely hard over the last 17 years to build the reputation that Motion Finance has today, and it’s been a journey I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of. Since our rebrand in 2017, we have seen incredible growth and as shareholders we realised maintaining such growth on our own would become more and more difficult. Finding the right position for Motion to continue to progress was imperative to us.

The opportunity to become part of the Evolution Funding Group has come at a great time, and we are looking forward to seeing what opportunities this will bring. We believe combining our tailored approach with Evolution’s technology and enhanced products will allow us to improve our offering to dealers and in turn, increase our market share.

I am incredibly excited to be leading Motion into the next phase in its journey and beyond. All our staff are dedicated to offering our dealer partners an exceptional service whilst supporting them with all their finance needs, and we’re committed to ensuring that this continues.”

Evolution Funding was advised by Si Heath of Heligan Corporate Finance, Gowlings and BDO.

Motion Finance was advised by Gareth Hughes & Co, Bennett Brooks, and Taylor Rose.

Evolution Funding is running a free webinar for dealers and the motor industry. The hour-long session from 2.00 pm on Thursday 18^th May will explore what the FCA wants to achieve with consumer duty and how fulfilling the requirements can create opportunities for dealers.

The webinar ‘Consumer Duty for Dealers: Burden or Blessing?’ will be hosted by Evolution’s sales director Keith Bell and head of risk and compliance, Sam Osborn and will feature an expert panel discussion.

Taking part is Jo Davis, partner at Auxillias, a specialist motor and consumer finance law firm. Representing dealers will be Karen Wagstaffe, head of group F&I compliance at Sytner Group, Richard Hubbard, group F&I director at Cambria Autos, and Tom Barcroft, sales director at Auto100.

Sam Osborn, Evolution’s head of risk and compliance, said:

“We are excited to be hosting this event, which will provide practical insight into consumer duty and should give dealers reassurance of the benefits and opportunities.

“We are lucky to have such an experienced panel joining us and we’re looking forward to having a really useful discussion with them. This webinar isn’t intended to provide a ‘how to’ but we are aware that dealers are still trying to get their heads around consumer duty and what it means for them and their customers. We’re aiming to shed some light on that.”

For more information and to register for the event, please visit:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/consumer-duty-for-dealers-burden-or-blessing-tickets-624264581167

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.”