Smart

Smart, legally operating as Smart Pension Limited, was co-founded in 2014 by Andrew Evans and Will Wynne, officially launching its master trust in 2015. The company's inception was a direct response to the UK's auto-enrolment legislation, which mandated that employers provide workplace pensions. Evans, with a background as a senior managing director in banking and finance, and Wynne, an experienced entrepreneur with successful ventures like Arena Flowers, identified a market gap for a technology-driven, user-friendly pension solution. Their combined expertise in finance and direct-to-consumer digital businesses shaped the firm's trajectory.

Smart operates a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) model, providing its proprietary retirement technology platform, Keystone, to governments and financial institutions globally. This core technology powers the Smart Pension Master Trust in the UK, which serves over 1.5 million members and 70,000 employers. The company generates revenue by licensing its Keystone platform to other financial services firms and through fees associated with its own master trust. Its client base extends from small and medium-sized enterprises in the UK to large international partners, including a significant contract with the Dubai International Financial Centre. The platform is designed to be highly scalable and adaptable, capable of serving diverse regulatory environments and client needs across the world.

The firm has achieved significant milestones, including becoming one of the largest workplace pension providers in the UK and receiving authorization from The Pensions Regulator in 2019. Smart's growth has been fueled by substantial strategic investments from major financial institutions such as Legal & General Investment Management, J.P. Morgan, Natixis Investment Managers, and Aquiline Capital Partners, with its latest funding round in May 2023 valuing the company at over £500 million. These partnerships not only provide capital but also validate the company's technology-first approach to transforming the global retirement savings market.

Keywords: retirement technology, workplace pensions, auto-enrolment, FinTech, PaaS, master trust, financial wellbeing, pension administration, asset management, defined contribution