On the go: Asset manager DWS Group has acquired a minority stake in Smart, the platform provider behind master trust Smart Pension.
The investment, of which terms were not disclosed, is part of the provider’s latest £165m Series D funding round that was announced in June.
The investment from DWS, an asset manager with €859bn (£732bn) in assets under management, will allow Smart to deliver “better outcomes for savers as they move towards retirement and beyond”.
Existing investors in the pensions provider include Chrysalis Investments, Barclays, JPMorgan, Legal & General Investment Management, Link Group and Natixis Investment Managers.
Dirk Goergen, member of the executive board and head of the client coverage division at DWS, said the manager is “looking forward to delivering on the opportunity to work with an innovative ‘retiretech’ disruptor that is fast-growing and well-placed to compete both in the UK and global retirement market”.
He added: “Increasingly, defined contribution savers are seeking to diversify their returns across a broader range of asset classes, and we believe that DWS’s asset management capabilities across both private and listed markets means that we are ideally placed to meet their evolving needs.”
Andrew Evans and Will Wynne, co-founders of Smart, noted that with a “huge additional opportunity” ahead of the company in the $55tn (£40.4tn) global retirement savings market, DWS is joining the provider as “an investor and partner to help fuel our global growth as a wave of legislative change sweeps the world”.
