The Platform
Vanarama operates one of the UK’s largest online vehicle leasing marketplaces, serving both personal (B2C) and business (B2B) customers across van, car, pickup, and electric vehicle categories. The platform sits at the intersection of financial services and e-commerce — FCA-regulated, SMCR-governed, and competing on conversion, SEO, and brand in a market dominated by well-capitalised incumbents.
When we began, the technical estate was held together by a single in-house technologist and a web of external dependencies. The ambition was clear; the infrastructure to deliver it was not.
Building the Organisation
The first priority was talent. We scaled the in-house technology and product team from one person to over 30, building capability across engineering, product management, QA, data, and infrastructure. This included establishing a hybrid offshore model that gave the business access to specialised skills without the full cost of a senior in-house team.
As the team grew, we put in place the decision-making frameworks needed to keep delivery aligned to value. WSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First) and CD3 (Cost of Delay Divided by Duration) replaced instinct-driven prioritisation with a systematic, data-backed model — one that could operate at board level and translate cleanly to engineering sprints.
Data, Analytics & Credit Strategy
Alongside the technology transformation, Rogue Digital’s co-founder Damien Cummings served as Director of Digital Analytics and Customer Insights for over five years. Operating across Vanarama’s multiple market segments — individuals, SMEs, and fleets — Damien was part of the senior management team responsible for building a scalable customer credit function, pricing strategy, governance, and data-led insight and analytics capabilities.
This meant the business had senior Rogue leadership embedded in both the technology and data sides of the operation — a rare combination that allowed us to align platform decisions with commercial reality:
- Credit risk and pricing — built the analytical frameworks underpinning Vanarama’s credit decisioning and pricing strategy across all customer segments
- Customer analytics — established the data infrastructure and reporting capabilities that moved the business from reactive reporting to predictive insight
- Governance and compliance — developed the data governance frameworks required for FCA-regulated credit operations, ensuring auditability and regulatory confidence
- Cross-functional alignment — with CTO and analytics leadership both from Rogue, technology investment was consistently directed toward measurable commercial outcomes
Platform Transformation
The B2C and B2B leasing platform was rebuilt iteratively to support Vanarama’s growth ambitions. Core improvements spanned:
- Conversion optimisation — funnel analysis, A/B testing, and UX improvements across the vehicle search and leasing journey
- SEO and performance — technical SEO at scale, Core Web Vitals, and structured data for a catalogue of thousands of vehicle listings
- Behavioural analytics — implementation of core metrics and event tracking to move from gut-feel decisions to data-driven product strategy
- Infrastructure and delivery — improved CI/CD, deployment reliability, and operational capabilities to support a faster pace of iteration
Regulatory Compliance
Operating under FCA regulation and SMCR (Senior Managers and Certification Regime) added a layer of governance that most digital businesses never encounter. We built compliance into the delivery process — ensuring that product changes, data handling, and customer communications met the standards required of a regulated financial services business.
Funding Rounds and Exit
The value of sound technical leadership compounds over time. By the time Vanarama entered its second funding round, the technology function was a demonstrable asset — not a liability for investors to price in. We led the technical due diligence workstreams for both rounds and played a central role in the acquisition process that resulted in AutoTrader UK Plc acquiring the business.
The outcome: a 10× increase in company value over four years, from £20m to £200m.