Pension company Smart has raised a further £76m in its latest funding round.
This series E funding has been led by Aquiline Capital Parents and includes investments from Fidelity International, Natixis Investment Managers, Chrysalis Investments and Barclays.
Smart says money raised from this investment round will held fund its global expansion, as well as funding future acquisitions and also accelerate investment in and distribution of its retirement platform Keystone.
It adds that the growth and profitability of its UK-based pension business is underpinned by the scalability of this Keystone platform.
In recent years Smart has experienced a period of strong growth, with group revenue of £67m in 2022, a 65 per cent increase on the previous year. Smart has over £5.5bn in assets under management on its platform and this is expected to exceed £10bn by the end of June 2023, with this latest funding.
The company was founded in 2014 by Andrew Evans and Will Wynne in the wake of the UK’s roll out of auto enrolment. Smart’s master trust offering in the UK now have more than one million savers and operates the pensions for 70,000 employers.
Smart has already expanded overseas, with propositions in Ireland and the US and a partnership with Zurich Workplace Solutions for the Dubai government workplace saving scheme.
Co-founders Evans and Wynne, said: “This investment is strong recognition of Smart’s success and journey to date, and highlights the immense opportunity that lies ahead. It is also a resounding vote of confidence in the UK’s fintech sector, and its leadership in financial services provision.
“We are on a mission to transform retirement, savings and financial wellbeing. We are the global leader in retirement technology and our platform, Keystone, is being deployed by the biggest, most successful financial institutions around the world.
“This is a $62 trillion global sector in the early stages of being disrupted, and we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of that. We have already reached scale and profitability in the UK, with Smart Pension now serving in excess of one million savers, and this backing allows us to achieve that scale and profitability in our global markets across the group.”