Smart will use the fresh capital to deepen its presence in the UK, US, Australia and the Middle East.
Retirement-focused fintech Smart has today closed a £165m Series D funding round, which includes £110m of primary and £55m of secondary equity.
The round was led by Chrysalis Investments, which has backed the likes of Klarna, Wise (formerly TransferWise) and Starling and whose share price has leapt up by nearly a third (32.3 per cent) in the last month thanks to its bumper investments.
Chrysalis Investments will provide Smart with £75m injection of capital as part of the fintech’s Series D, with other investors set to be revealed soon.
“Smart is an innovator and continues to establish itself as the leading retirement technology platform provider globally. In just a few years it 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 toward retirement and access funds during retirement,” Richard Watts, head of strategy and co-manager of Chrysalis Investments 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.”
Chrysalis Investments joins Legal & General, J.P. Morgan, the Link Group, Barclays and Natixis Investment Managers, as investors in the global pension provider.
Smart plans to use the cash to help it further grow its retirement technology platform in the UK, the US, Australia and the Middle East, with other markets just on the horizon.
“With close to a million savers on our platform already, we now have straight-line visibility through to well over five million savers on the platform within the next 24 months,” Andrew Evans and Will Wynne, co-founders of Smart, added.
“We are very focused on our core goal: offering the very best technology to improve the lives of retirement savers around the world. We also recognise that there are tremendous opportunities for us to cost-effectively deploy capital in M&A to bring members and assets onto our technology platform in the UK, the United States and beyond and we will be pursuing such opportunities with the energy those markets’ retirement savers deserve.”
As well as deepening its involvement in several countries, with more on the way, Smart is also hoping to use the fresh cash to further tap into the massive $55tr retirement market, capitalising on the shift in regulation happening across the globe.
Currently, Smart has over £1.8bn in assets under management across its retirement network, seeing a 160 per cent increase in 2020, and currently counts 550 staff on its team.
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