On the go: JP Morgan, the American multinational investment bank and financial services company, has taken a minority equity stake in UK mastertrust Smart Pension.
JP Morgan’s investment in the five-year-old company was undisclosed but it has come as part of Smart’s new funding round, bringing the total capital raised to date to £50m.
Andrew Evans, Smart Pension co-founder and CEO, said securing this deal was a positive step in the company’s growth and international reach.
Mr Evans said: “From the outset our objective has been to put user engagement and experience at the heart of everything we do, utilising technology to build an unrivalled platform.”
He added that “the opportunities to disrupt and do things differently in this sector are staggering, and we will be leading the way”.
Asset manager Legal & General Investment Management took a minority stake in the digital pension platform in 2016.
Anne Lester, global head of retirement solutions at JP Morgan Asset Management, will take a non-executive seat on the Smart board.
Ms Lester said: “We are investing in pensions and savings solutions and technology capabilities to help investors achieve better financial outcomes.”
“Smart Pension has demonstrated how financial technology can have a positive impact by making it easier both for people to save for retirement and for companies to offer pension plans to their employees,” she added.
Will Wynne, Smart Pension co-founder and managing director, said: “This is an opportunity to demonstrate how our unique proprietary dynamic technology is plugging a huge gap in the workplace savings platform market, and performing on a global scale.”
He added: “The company is in the early-stage conversations with new global partners as the world’s financial institutions grapple with regulatory change and legacy technology.”
