On the go: Smart, the platform provider behind master trust Smart Pension, has raised £165m in a funding round, with the goal to expand its business in different territories.
Chrysalis Investments, whose portfolio includes names such as Klarna, Wise (formerly TransferWise), Starling Bank and The Hut Group, led the funding round with a £75m equity investment.
The investment forms part of a £165m Series D funding round and includes £110m of newly issued primary capital and £55m of secondary equity acquired from existing shareholders of Smart, a statement read.
The retirement savings platform will use these funds to further grow its retirement technology platform offering in the UK, the US, Australia and the Middle East, with additional territories to follow, it stated.
Chrysalis Investments joins Legal & General, JPMorgan, the Link Group, Barclays and Natixis Investment Managers, the strategic investors to date in the company.
Richard Watts, head of strategy and co-manager of Chrysalis Investments, noted that Smart “has disrupted the retirement savings industry, working with some of the world’s most well-known financial services providers to create a better way to save towards retirement and access funds during retirement”.
He said: “The world has changed. Just as companies like Wise and Klarna add huge benefits to their users via best-in-class financial technology, Smart offers user experience and technology to transform retirement for savers around the world.
“What Smart has achieved in the past 12 months alone was a real catalyst for our support and we believe that together we can help Andrew [Evans] and Will [Wynne] achieve their global ambitions.”
The platform provider saw its assets grow by more than 160 per cent to £1.8bn in 2020. During the year, the company completed the rollout of its platform with Bank of Ireland’s insurance arm, New Ireland Assurance, and with global insurance giant Zurich and the Dubai International Financial Centre in the Middle East, it stated.
Evans and Wynne, co-founders of Smart, noted that the company is focused on “offering the very best technology to improve the lives of retirement savers around the world”.
They said: “We also recognise that there are tremendous opportunities for us to cost-effectively deploy capital in [mergers and acquisitions] to bring members and assets on to our technology platform in the UK, the US and beyond, and we will be pursuing such opportunities with the energy those markets’ retirement savers deserve.”
