Smart Pension has received £165m in funding from asset manager DWS, who have acquired a minority stake in the firm.
This announcement follows news that Chrysalis Investments has also recently invested £75m into Smart, joining Barclays, JP Morgan, Legal & General Investment Management, Link Group and Natixis Investment Managers as investors in pension company.
Smart Pension offers a master trust in the UK AE workplace pensions market, as well as partnering with financial institutions internationally, including Zurich in Dubai and New Ireland Assurance in Ireland.
Smart’s technology platform serves close to a million savers, and is on a trajectory to support 5 million savers over the next 24 months, having grown from £100m AUM to £2bn in just over two years.
DWS member of the executive board head of client coverage division Dirk Goergen says: “Increasingly, defined contribution savers are seeking to diversify their returns across a broader range of asset classes, and we believe that DWS’ asset management capabilities across both private and listed markets means that we are ideally placed to meet their evolving needs.”
DWS chief operating officer Mark Cullen adds: “Acquiring a minority stake in Smart is an exciting investment opportunity for DWS given the outlook for growth in defined contribution pension savings both in the UK and globally. We believe that the strength of Smart’s technology platform underpins their current success and that the asset management capabilities of DWS have the potential to help Smart to achieve its global ambitions.”
Smart Co-founders Will Wynne and Andrew Evans said this latest investment is “recognition of Smart’s journey to date and the huge additional opportunity ahead of us in the $55trn global retirement savings market. This investment should help fuel our global growth as a wave of legislative change sweeps the world.”