CAR loan company Oodle is recruiting up to 40 staff as part of a plan to double its workforce in the next 12 months.

The firm, which specialises in finance for used cars, moved to bigger offices at Oxford Science Park last month.

Its expansion comes on the back of a recent £60m cash injection by private equity investor KKR.

The company, set up last year, is looking for people to fill roles in its sales team and also in IT, finance and customer service.

Oodle chief operating officer James Southon said: “We need more people to help us provide great customer service.

“Part of the excitement of what we are doing is that this market is stuck in the dark ages.

“A big part of the market is manual and clunky, so it can take days to get a decision on finance but dealers want a quick decision.

“We are changing the way lending is handled and can differentiate ourselves through the systems we build and the people we have.”

Mr Southon said the firm chose to be based in Oxfordshire because of its “talent pool”, largely due to its two universities.

He explained: “Oxford is a perfect place for us because it has such a fantastic talent pool here, which is ideal when it comes to supporting what we are doing.

“As to the sort of person we are looking for, it’s about finding the right attitude, so if someone has that, we’re interested.

“Yes, they need a tech side but we can train them up.”

Mr Southon’s background is with Investec Bank.

Oodle’s chief executive Jonathan Clayton is former managing director of Credit Suisse.