Other investors including Force Over Mass Capital, Elkstone Capital, and several angel investors, including Alan Morgan of MMC Ventures and other senior figures in the finance industry, also participated. With this funding round, Penfold has raised £9 million.
The capital will be used to fund further growth for the business – expanding the team and activating an out-of-home marketing campaign.
Digital alternative
Founded by Pete Hykin, Stuart Robinson, and Chris Eastwood in 2019, Penfold is a digital alternative to traditional pension companies, allowing users to set up, manage and track their pensions easily online and via the app.
The UK company is the first pension provider to offer an open banking integration. As per the company’s claims, users can choose to invest their money sustainably and track down and combine lost pension pots in just a few taps.
The company got FCA authorisation in May 2019 and has since grown to over 25,000 users.
Pete Hykin, the co-founder at Penfold, said: “The sheer popularity of the crowdfund shows that Penfold is a solution to a real problem for lots of people. Saving for your future should be as easy as online banking, but legacy pension companies are making it hard for consumers to have visibility or control of their pension pots. We’re cutting out the complexity in pensions – and people are showing their support by investing in us.
“The size of the pensions industry in the UK is huge – there is currently £7 trillion sitting in UK pension funds and that number is growing every year. But it should be higher as millions of people still aren’t saving anywhere near enough.
“We have grown rapidly over the last 18 months, and have developed the product so that it works for anyone who is fed up with the traditional pensions industry and wants greater control. Our mission is to simplify the pensions industry and make saving for the future simple. We’re hugely proud of the fact that 80% of our customers pay into their pension every month, a behaviour other disruptors have struggled to drive in their users.”
George Damoney, a Partner at Silicon Valley-based Plug & Play Ventures, said: “We see the retirement savings market as significantly untapped, underserved, and a ticking time bomb for many groups – especially the self-employed. A combination of younger generations not saving enough, people living longer, and inadequate state pensions all contribute to a growing need for better and more engaging products. From their pension calculator to their extensive content library, and the sustainable and sharia-compliant funds – Penfold is creating a fundamentally better proposition which users love. They’ve shown they don’t just want to build a better product than what’s on the market, but the best possible one.”
Source: UK Tech
