Volt, the global real-time payments platform, has forged a 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 and services as well as purchase vehicles outright.

Car sales in 2023 were the strongest since the Covid-19 pandemic, with used car sales particularly booming, experiencing 5.5 per cent.

Volt powers Bumper’s ‘Pay Now’ function, facilitating 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.

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.

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.”

While Jack Allman, CCO and co-founder at Bumper, also 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."

Following partnerships with Shopify Start and Worldpay in 2023, the collaboration with Bumper marks another step in Volt’s growth journey, which includes a successful Series B funding round and Australia expansion.