Vanarama operates one of the UK’s largest online vehicle leasing marketplaces, serving personal (B2C) and business (B2B) customers across vans, cars, pickups, and EVs. It sits where financial services meets e-commerce: FCA-regulated, SMCR-governed, and competing on conversion, SEO, and brand against well-capitalised incumbents.
When Rogue joined, the technical estate rested on a single in-house technologist and a web of external dependencies. The board needed leadership that could build an organisation, not just ship code.
Building the technology and data team
Across a multi-year engagement, Rogue founder Jamie Buchanan provided board-level CTO leadership. We helped scale the in-house team from one person to 30+ across engineering, product, QA, data, and infrastructure, including a hybrid offshore model. WSJF and CD3 prioritisation replaced instinct with a value-based delivery model, and we owned the technology budget, investment cases, and cost optimisation so spend stayed tied to business outcomes.
Platform and delivery
The B2C and B2B platform was improved iteratively: conversion optimisation across the leasing funnel, technical SEO and Core Web Vitals across thousands of vehicle listings, behavioural analytics, and stronger CI/CD. Compliance was built into delivery, not bolted on, to meet FCA and SMCR standards.
Two funding rounds and a £200m exit
As a member of the executive board across a four-year value-growth window, Rogue helped lead the technical due-diligence workstreams for two VC rounds and played a central role in the acquisition by AutoTrader UK Plc. Company value grew 10x over that period, from £20m to £200m.